To Sense My Space: Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was an extremely influential Russian artist of the early twentieth century and is credited with painting some of the first purely abstract works, through the creation of what is now known as Kandinskys colour threory. Kandinsky believed that each colour had its own expressive value, being able to communicate with emotions without showing real objects. For example Kandinsky thought black was the colour of an eternal silence, without future or hope; In music it would be the final pause.

It is claimed that Kandinsky once said, 'Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmony, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul'. Kandinsky claimed he saw colour when he heard music and so when he painted he is said to have 'applied streaks and blobs of colors onto the canvas with a palette knife and make them sing with all the intensity he could'.

These are some examples of Kandinsky's work where it is evident he applied the above theory;