The focal point of this paper is to prepare an insight into Wassily Kandinsky’s famous painting Yellow, Red, Blue, painted in 1925. This work of art is an exceptional artistic expression Oil on canvas, 127x200cm, and is currently located in Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. This painting is incomparable for its use of space all over the canvas, and the application of dimension in the form of space is unique. (Kandinsky, 1) He made space speak a language and narration that was beyond imagination.
With his penetrating look and absorbing concern, he explores the innate charm of an object of art. According to the celebrated Latin poet Ovid, art lies in concealing art. If art is the magic of holding back time, then artists are the magicians who captivate time in colors and canvases. As time passes by, several take birth and perish, but some people with their achievements and contributions leave their footprints on the sands of time.
These people remain immortal forever in the pages of history and, along with them, last the movements created by them. One such artist is Wassily Kandinsky, and he changed the face of art in the 20th century. However, he owes much of his face to photography, particularly in the context of using space, which was making its place from the latter parts of the 19th century.
The chief reason behind the development of space usage, particularly in the painting Yellow, Red, Blue, is incorporated in the mechanism of photography because with the materialization of photography, it soon became evident that the need for a realistic representation of the subjects was no longer required as no painting can become as perfect as a photograph. Thus, a new coinage was introduced as “picture perfect” and it became the benchmark of realistic representation. It was up to the painters to develop a new method of countering this situation. It would be relevant to mention that it is widely believed that the different artistic movements like Impressionist, Expressionist, or Dadaism ideology in the context of painting came into existence during the 1900s.
A number of painters formulated these perceptions of painting, and the basic ideology was based on the progression of art where the basic issue was represented, as life should reflect the inner self of the human mind where there would be the abundant scope of imagination and space that would manifest thought. Nevertheless, Kandinsky’s usage of space becomes an integral part of the canvas in the painting Yellow, Red, Blue.
The usage of space, particularly on the right-hand side of the canvas, is the balance of the shapes and lines present on the left central part of the painting. Here the space is colored in yellow. This is a more vibrant color that is used on the left side space, blue. In a way, the artist presents an image that is surrounded by space. However, the balanced is in the right manner. The space itself is not becoming the subject, but the lines and figures are catching the viewer’s concentration. Similarly, as on the left side, there is a cold color image on the hot color yellow space. This is in direct opposition to the left side, where there was cold color space containing a hot-colored image.
Thus, the aspect of space is manifested in its own right, and it appears that patterns, colors, shapes, and lines are suspended over the void of space on a yellow background representing space. Here space becomes the cognitive materialization of a philosophy that tends to incorporate the materialistic void of urban existence and material thinking patterns. The different forms of lines also act as a formulation of the complexities of the modern era. These lines, be it diagonal, vertical, horizontal, thin, thick, wavy, zig-zag, or straight, all are a representation of the complex features, and it indicates that all these structures are the summation of the void of space itself.
The painting Yellow, Red, Blue, is a truly breathtaking work that is incorporated by laborious craftsmanship, prospective studies that are wonderfully plotted, and has been executed with an amalgamation of structured procedure and imagination. To Kandinsky, it conveys this work as an amusing confrontation between the left panel space cold color “Female” and the hot color “Male” in the right pane. However, it is a combination of mathematics and dimensions where space denotes the unification and the differential context at the same time.
This piece of artwork is a beautiful depiction of gender difference, and their mutual attraction juxtaposed together and is regarded as a total completion. This artwork is also referred to as a manifestation of a love machine. However, this piece also represents the sufferings induced out of lust. This is because the space indicated on both sides of the canvas is an act of illusion in the context of the main painting.
The main aspect of this picture, from a viewer’s perspective, is to look for the philosophic approach that the painter has taken to enumerate the stability and inconsistency of life. This work of art is exquisite because it places the viewer’s perspective that can be termed as bilateral. It is down-to-earth and materialistic in one way, and at the same time, it renders the spiritual aspects of existence. Not many art forms are capable of evoking such aura, and thus it could be termed as work right out of the grade one hall of fame. All in all, to summarize, it can be specified that Kandinsky presents the most powerful analysis of space and the complexity related to existence and the eternality prevailing with all the differences and barriers imposed.
Thus, more widely, the term ‘space’ can be used to depict a specific type of creative fabrication as engendering by human beings, and the term more often than not implies some extent of aesthetic value, which depicts the sensory or sensory-emotional values of the artist, and sometimes even portrays sentiments and tastes of that person. Thus, space in Wassily Kandinsky’s famous painting Yellow, Red, Blue can be well defined as a component of literature. Literature, no doubt, records in it the life and society from which it emerges; in doing so, it can never distort the truth or magnify it. Thus like literature, art is also a mirror of society.
In the modern-day world of prevailing dynamism, that is moving from progress to greater progress, or better said, beauty to higher beauty in an endless motion, underneath all ostensible pandemonium and bewilderment. The trend, which dominates the globe, is its demonstration of orderliness and maintenance, which display their external mark and at the same time symbolize the inflexible geometry of the cities of the world. In its smoke trails, in its analogous car tracks, and its streets, its factories, and the bridges and its gas tanks, by making use of the underscoring mechanical configuration, the artist could generate a new appearance of optimism through the simple shapes like the use of quadrilateral, spirals, and triangles in the painting Yellow, Red, Blue.
Simultaneously, the artist uses the concept and imagery of space in a different notion too. Kandinsky presents the energy of the universe through abstract line formulation that may be termed as galactic in nature. The basic form of this painting could be ascertained as abstract impressionism, and there is no denial to this classification because this painting satisfies the sub altar manifestation of decentralized imaginative functions. Therefore, in accordance with the grammatical representation of art, this painting by Kandinsky is certainly a work of art as opposed by many, and his concept and use of space are unparalleled by any other artist of his generation.
The most important point to be noted in this respect is the amount of energy of space that is reflected within the parameter of this canvas. To ascertain a piece of canvas to be judged as a work of art, it is necessary to evoke a certain feeling within the viewers. There is no grammar involved in this part; no mathematics is needed; only the artistic sense is operational in this context from the part of the viewer. The interpretation may vary, but the theme that evoked the interpretation of the viewer is all that is important to certify a painting as Art. In this context, too, Kandinsky comes out with excellence with his work Yellow, Red, Blue. He made space a meaningful narration, and this makes this painting a brilliant work of art.
Nature is created by itself, while art is the creation of nature. Art knows no death, it is imperishable. As said by Longfellow that art is long and time is fleeting. The spices of nature are born only to die after a certain space of existence. Art continues indefinitely. Austin Dobson’s assessment of art is expressed in his saying that all passes. Art alone enduring stays to us. The bust outlasts the throne, The coin, Tiberius. Art is never demonstrative; it never catches attention with an exhibitionistic appeal. Obviously, a casual observer scarcely finds anything impressive, a thing of beauty, in it. On the other hand, the eye of a connoisseur never misses it. (Bowlt, 26) In the case of Kandinsky and his painting Yellow, Red, Blue, this maxim is established to its pinnacle.
Works Cited
Kandinsky, Wassily; Yellow, Red, Blue; Oil on canvas; 127x200cm; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; 1925.
Bowlt, John E and Rose-Carol Washton Long; The Life of Vasilii Kandinsky in Russian art: a study of “On the spiritual in art” by Wassily Kandinsky; (Newtonville, MA.: Oriental Research Partners, 1984).