Mit und Gegen

Kandinsky's analyses on forms and colours result not from simple, arbitrary idea-associations but from the painter's inner experience. He spent years creating abstract , sensorially rich paintings, working with form and colour, tirelessly observing his own paintings and those of other artists, noting their effects on his sense of colour. This subjective experience is something that anyone can do - not scientific, objective observations but inner, subjective ones, what French philosopher Michel Henry calls "absolute subjectivity" or the "absolute phenomenological life".

For Kandinsky, the principle of art and the foundation of forms and the harmony of colours is "Inner necessity". He defines it as the principle of efficient contact of the form with the human soul. Every form is the delimitation of a surface by another one; it possesses an inner content, the effect it produces on one who looks at it attentively. This inner necessity is the right of the artist to unlimited freedom, but this freedom becomes licence if it is not founded on such a necessity. Art is born from the inner necessity of the artist in an enigmatic, mystical way through which it acquires an autonomous life; it becomes an independent subject, animated by a spiritual breath.

Red is a warm colour, lively and agitated; it is forceful, a movement in itself. Mixed with black it becomes brown, a hard colour. Mixed with yellow, it gains in warmth and becomes orange, which imparts an irradiating movement on its surroundings. When red is mixed with blue it moves away from man to become purple, which is a cool red. Red and green form the third great contrast, and orange and purple the fourth.

Mit und Gegen, 1929 is the best interpretation of Kandinsky's theory.

Prevailing color of this fine art print is red and its shape is landscape. This image is printed on demand - you can choose material, size and finishing.

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). Russian painter and art theorist. One of the most famous painters of the 20th century. He gained fame through his abstract paintings. After the First World War, he moved to Germany, where he worked until 1933, when he fled the Nazis to France. He lived in France until his death. Kandinsky worked a long way to get to his abstract painting technique (he was fascinated by symbolism and the psychology of colour). Kandinsky’s most famous works belong to the Bauhaus movement - an artistic movement of the 20s and 30s. It is characterized by sharp, geometric shapes (circles, wedges, triangles, etc.), clear colours and thoughtful treatment of surfaces. Perhaps the most famous work of this era is Yellow - red - blue (1925).