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.

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