Farbstudie quadrate 1913 by wassily kandinsky biography

To Kandinsky, colours on the painter's palette evoke a double effect: a purely physical effect on the eye which is charmed by the beauty of colours, similar to the joyful impression when we eat a delicacy.

This effect can be much deeper, however, causing a vibration of the soul or an "inner resonance" - a spiritual effect in which the colour touches the soul itself.

Farbstudie quadrate 1913 by wassily kandinsky biography

The obvious properties we can see when we look at an isolated colour and let it act alone; on one side is the warmth or coldness of the colour tone, and on the other side is the clarity or obscurity of that tone. Warmth is a tendency towards yellow, and coldness a tendency towards blue; yellow and blue form the first great, dynamic contrast.

Yellow has an eccentric movement and blue a concentric movement; a yellow surface seems to move closer to us, while a blue surface seems to move away. Yellow is a typically terrestrial colour, whose violence can be painful and agg