Komposition c. 1920s

László Moholy-Nagy made this "Komposition" painting with, what looks like, simple watercolor washes. I can imagine him carefully building up the layers of these overlapping geometric shapes. The act of painting here feels more like an experiment, a testing of the relationships between form and color. It's kind of like he's asking, 'What happens if I put this color next to this shape?' The paint is applied thinly, almost transparently, which gives the composition a sense of lightness and movement. The lines have this uncanny ability to speak without using words. I think Moholy-Nagy was interested in the clarity of geometric forms, but also in the way that light and color can change our perception of them. It’s almost as if he's inviting us to consider how we construct meaning through visual experience. He was in conversation with other painters like Kandinsky and Malevich, all exploring the possibilities of abstraction and how it could change the way we see the world.