Cubism & Early Abstraction · 1866–1944 · Russian

Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky tied colors to sounds and emotions: in Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911) he likens yellow to a blaring trumpet and deep blue to a pull toward the spiritual. He later taught color and form at the Bauhaus.

Across 5 works, the colors are mostly brown (30%), white (18%) and yellow (14%). On average the canvases are light, moderately saturated and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: silver, light chartreuse, yellow, rich olive and pale yellow.

Color print

The swatches covering most of these canvases, averaged over every work, dark to light.

• MG 206 silver 20.3% of canvas
• MG 045 yellow 4.6% of canvas
• MG 197 rich olive 4.3% of canvas
• MG 171 bone 4.0% of canvas
• MG 212 pale grey 3.9% of canvas
• MG 201 parchment 3.9% of canvas
• MG 203 pale muted golden cream 3.5% of canvas
• MG 189 pale golden sand 3.2% of canvas
• MG 218 graphite 3.0% of canvas
• MG 044 light yellow 2.9% of canvas
• MG 177 dark taupe 2.2% of canvas
• MG 176 taupe 2.1% of canvas
• MG 213 light grey 2.0% of canvas
• MG 217 iron 2.0% of canvas
• MG 222 charcoal 1.8% of canvas
• MG 219 bistre 1.8% of canvas

Measurements

Lightness

0.64

Contrast

0.55

Vividness

0.056

Warmth

+0.70

Complexity

225 cells

Hue range

0.68

Focus

0.11

Composition

Averaged over 5 works: 50% of the visual weight in the right half, 51% in the upper half; symmetry 0.37; 9% calm space; half of the detail in 32% of the canvas. Measured from each image, not a rule the painters followed.

Works

• The Blue Rider, 1903
• Composition VI, 1913
• Composition VII, 1913
• On White II, 1923
• Yellow-Red-Blue, 1925