KANDINSKY

WASSILY

1896 moves to Munich to study art

1914 moves back to Russia

1922-1933 teaches at Bauhaus

1933 moves to Paris

1866 born in Moscow 1914-1919 WWI 1939-1945 WWII

1944 dies in Neuillysur-Seine

TIMELINE

The spirit, like the body, can be strengthened and developed by frequent exercise. Just as the body, if neglected, grows weaker and finally impotent, so the spirit perishes if untended. And for this reason it is necessary for the artist to know the starting point for the exercise of his spirit. The starting point is the study of colour and its effects on men. Two great divisions of colour occur to the mind at the outset: into warm & cold and into light & dark.
To each colour there are therefore four shades of appeal. 1) warm* and light 2) warm and dark 3) cold** and light 4) cold and dark *warm: an approach towards yellow **cool: an approach towards blue

Yellow and Blue

-the embodiment of the two great divisions -starting point for systematic consideration of color and ordering of its major relationships -chromatic equivalent of straight and curved lines

Yellow-Blue Contrasts

effect-deprivation, light-shadow, bright-dark strength-weakness warmth-cold proximity-distance repulsion-attraction affinity with acids-affinity with alkalies active-passive
Typical yellow-blue study that Kandinskys students at the Bauhaus would have created. (Clark A. Poling. Kandinskys Teachings at the Bauhaus)

Yellow

-always carries with it the nature of brightness -advancing -ascending -active -color nearest the light

Blue

-always brings something of darkness with it -receding -descending -passive -provides a feel of cold and shade

THE TWO GREAT DIVISIONS

If one makes two circles of the same size and fills one with yellow and the other with blue, one notices after only a short period of concentrating upon these circles that the yellow streams outward, moves away from the center, and approaches almost visibly toward the spectator. The blue, however, develops a centripetal movement..., and withdraws from the spectator.

Typical Yellow-Blue diagram that Kandinsky would have shown his students during his lecture on the two colors. (Clark A. Poling. Kandinskys Teachings at the Bauhaus) Blue, 1927
THE TWO GREAT DIVISIONS

Yellow forms on a blue ground and blue forms on a yellow ground...The yellow forms step forward, appear larger (eccentric), whereas the blue seems to lie behind the actual ground plane. In the second instance, the yellow seems to lie in front of the actual ground, the blue forms step back and appear smaller.

Typical Yellow-Blue diagram illustrating the spatial phenomena of the colors that Kandinsky would have shown his students during his lecture on the two colors. (Clark A. Poling. Kandinskys Teachings at the Bauhaus)

THE TWO GREAT DIVISIONS

Antithesis 1

Yellow & Blue

Yellow -bodily -excentric -overspreading boundaries Antithesis 2 Blue -spiritual -concentric -turning about its own center

White & Black

White -eternal discord with possibilities -birth -excentric

-characteristics of approach and retreat (as in Yellow and Blue) exist, but in a more rigid form Black -absolute discord with no possibilities -death -concentric

1 4
2

3 2

3
Antithesis 3

4 1

Red & Green (complements)

Red -contains motion within itself Antithesis 4

-lack of excentric and concentric characteristics Green -motionless, with the potential for movement

Orange & Violet (complements)

Orange -Red brought closer to humanity by Yellow Violet -Red pulled away from humanity by Blue
THE TWO GREAT DIVISIONS

The glow of red is within itself. For this reason it is a colour more beloved than yellow, being frequently used in primitive and traditional decoration, and also in peasant costumes, because in the open air the harmony of red and green is very beautiful. Taken by itself this red is material, and, like yellow, has no very deep appeal. Only when combined with something nobler does it acquire this deep appeal. It is dangerous to seek to deepen red by an admixture of black, for black quenches the glow, or at least reduces it considerably.

Typical yellow-red-blue study that Kandinskys students at the Bauhaus would have created. (Clark A. Poling. Kandinskys Teachings at the Bauhaus)

Typical yellow-red-blue study that Kandinskys students at the Bauhaus would have created. (Clark A. Poling. Kandinskys Teachings at the Bauhaus)
THE COLOR RED

WHITE

pregnant with possibility, the nothingness before birth, joy and purity

harmony of silence, pause between melodies

alive, striving towards a goal, glowing light, warm red: strenth, vigor, determination, triumph light, cold red: youthful, pure joy, young

ORANGE

RED

light, warm red: trumpets light, cold red: violin

...color is a power which directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.

like a man, convinced of his own powers

old violin

typically earthly color, increased intensification of the hue leads to shrillness, disturbing influence, agressive and insistent, cannot have a profound meaning in human nature: madness, a violent raving lunacy

YELLOW

trumpets

GREEN

the most restful color, self-satisfied and immovable, the color of summer

middle notes on the violin

typically heavenly color, profound meaning, ultimate feeling is one of rest, as it moves closer to black: echoes of grief

light blue: flute dark blue: cello darker blue: double bass darkest blue: organ

VIOLET

BLUE

sad and ailing

English horn, deep notes of a wood instrument

BLACK

totally dead silence, grief and death, least harmonious

silence of no possibility, profound and final pause

THE PSYCHIC EFFECT

Yellow, Red, Blue, 1927

It is clear that all I have said of these simple colours is very provisional and general, and so also are those feelings (joy, grief, etc.) which have been quoted as parallels of the colours. For these feelings are only the material expressions of the soul. Shades of colour, like those of sound, are of a much finer texture and awake in the soul emotions too fine to be expressed in words. Certainly each tone will find some probable expression in words, but it will always be incomplete, and that part which the word fails to express will not be unimportant but rather the very kernel of its existence. For this reason words are, and will always remain, only hints, mere suggestions of colours. In this impossibility of expressing colour in words with the consequent need for some other mode of expression lies the opportunity of the art of the future. In this art among innumerable rich and varied combinations there is one which is founded on firm fact, and that is as follows. The actual expression of colour can be achieved simultaneously by several forms of art, each art playing its separate part, and producing a whole which exceeds in richness and force any expression attainable by one art alone. The immense possibilities of depth and strength to be gained by combination or by discord between the various arts can be easily realized.

Composition VIII, 1923

THE PSYCHIC EFFECT

http://www.wassilykandinsky.net/ http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil%20of%20art/kandinskytext.htm http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kandinsky/ http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kandinsky-wassily.htm Overy, Paul. Kandinsky: the Language of the Eye. New York : Praeger Publishers, 1969. Messer, Thomas. Vasily Kandinsky. New York : H.N. Abrams, 1997. Poling, Clark A. Kandinskys Teaching at the Bauhaus : Color Theory and Analytical Drawing. New York : Rizzoli, 1987.

SOURCES