Marketplace

Wassily Kandinsky's 'Marketplace' (1903) depicts the traditional market as a subject world — the marketplace with its crowded activity, diverse social types, and colorful merchandise was one of the most traditional of genre subjects in European painting, and his engagement with this subject placed his developing style in dialogue with centuries of market scene painting. His treatment of the marketplace connected to his interest in folk culture and the colorful traditions of market life.

Kandinsky renders the marketplace with his characteristic decorative boldness — the market's crowd, stalls, and colorful activity depicted through his bold simplification and color organization. His handling of the multiple figures within the market scene creates the social animation of the subject while maintaining his characteristic non-naturalistic visual approach. The marketplace's inherent coloristic richness suited his interest in bold, saturated color relationships.