WASSILY

KANDINSKY
TIMELINE
1866
born in
Moscow
1914-1919
WWI
1939-1945
WWII
1914
moves back
to Russia
1896
moves to Munich
to study art
1922-1933
teaches at
Bauhaus
1933
moves to
Paris
1944
dies in
Neuilly-
sur-Seine
THE TWO GREAT DIVISIONS
The spirit, like the body, can be strengthened and developed by
frequent exercise. Just as the body, if neglected, grows weaker and fnally
impotent, so the spirit perishes if untended. And for this reason it is nec-
essary 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
affnity with acids-affnity with alkalies
active-passive
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
Typical yellow-blue study that Kandinskys students at the
Bauhaus would have created.
(Clark A. Poling. Kandinskys Teachings at the Bauhaus)
THE TWO GREAT DIVISIONS
If one makes two circles of the same size and flls 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)
1
1
2 2
4
3
3
4
THE TWO GREAT DIVISIONS
Antithesis 1
Yellow & Blue
Yellow
-bodily
-excentric
-overspreading boundaries
Blue
-spiritual
-concentric
-turning about its own center
Antithesis 3
Red & Green (complements)
-lack of excentric and concentric characteristics
Red
-contains motion
within itself
Green
-motionless, with the
potential for movement
Antithesis 2
White & Black
-characteristics of approach and retreat (as in Yellow and Blue)
exist, but in a more rigid form
White
-eternal discord with
possibilities
-birth
-excentric
Black
-absolute discord with
no possibilities
-death
-concentric
Antithesis 4
Orange & Violet (complements)
Orange
-Red brought closer to
humanity by Yellow
Violet
-Red pulled away from
humanity by Blue
THE COLOR RED
Typical yellow-red-blue study that Kandinskys students at
the Bauhaus would have created.
(Clark A. Poling. Kandinskys Teachings at the Bauhaus)
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 dan-
gerous 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)
THE PSYCHIC EFFECT
...color is a power which directly infu-
ences 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.
pregnant with possibility,
the nothingness before
birth, joy and purity
alive, striving towards a goal, glowing
light, warm red: strenth, vigor,
determination, triumph
light, cold red: youthful, pure joy, young
like a man, convinced of his own powers
typically earthly color,
increased intensifcation of the hue leads to shrillness,
disturbing infuence,
agressive and insistent,
cannot have a profound meaning
in human nature: madness, a violent raving lunacy
the most restful color,
self-satisfed and immovable,
the color of summer
typically heavenly color,
profound meaning,
ultimate feeling is one of rest,
as it moves closer to black: echoes of grief
sad and ailing
totally dead silence,
grief and death,
least harmonious
harmony of silence,
pause between melodies
light, warm red: trumpets
light, cold red: violin
old violin
trumpets
middle notes on the violin
light blue: fute
dark blue: cello
darker blue: double bass
darkest blue: organ
English horn, deep notes of
a wood instrument
silence of no possibility,
profound and fnal pause
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THE PSYCHIC EFFECT
It is clear that all I have said of these
simple colours is very provisional and
general, and so also are those feel-
ings (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 fner texture and awake in the
soul emotions too fne to be expressed
in words. Certainly each tone will fnd
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 sug-
gestions of colours. In this impossibil-
ity of expressing colour in words with
the consequent need for some other
mode of expression lies the opportu-
nity of the art of the future. In this art
among innumerable rich and varied
combinations there is one which is
founded on frm fact, and that is as fol-
lows. 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.
Yellow, Red, Blue, 1927
Composition VIII, 1923
SOURCES
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.