Wassily Kandinsky Quotes

Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.

The true work of art is born from the 'artist': a mysterious, enigmatic, and mystical creation. It detaches itself from him, it acquires an autonomous life, becomes a personality, an independent subject, animated with a spiritual breath, the living subject of a real existence of being.

Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.

There is no must in art because art is free.

Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential.

Everything starts from a dot.

Color provokes a psychic vibration. Color hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body.

The observer must learn to look at the picture as a graphic representation of a mood and not as a representation of objects.

The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.

The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure and, finally, for the supernatural The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness and becomes white.

Empty canvas. In appearance - really empty, silent, indifferent. Stunned, almost. In effect - full of tensions, with thousand subdued voices, heavy with expectations. A little frightened because it may be violated

To create a work of art is to create the world.

The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium. Of the three primary forms, it points most clearly to the fourth dimension.

The spirit, like the body, can be strengthened and developed by frequent exercise. Just as the body, if neglected, grows weaker and finally impotent, so the spirit perishes if untended.

Color is a means to exert a direct influence on the soul.

The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, sets the soul vibrating automatically.

Orange is red brought nearer to humanity by yellow.

Color is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano, with its many strings.

That is beautiful which is produced by the inner need, which springs from the soul.

The joy of life consists in the inevitable, continual triumph of new values.

… lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and … stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to “walk about” into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?

Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. It follows that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated.

Each color lives by its mysterious life.

As a picture painted in yellow always radiates spiritual warmth, or as one in blue has apparently a cooling effect, so green is only boring.

The nightmare of materialism, which has turned the life of the universe into an evil, useless game, is not yet past; it holds the awakening soul still in its grip.

It is essential that the painter should develop not only his eyes, but also his soul, so that it too may be capable of weighing colors in balance.

All methods are sacred if they are internally necessary. All methods are sins if they are not justified by internal necessity.

Abstract art places a new world, which on the surface has nothing to do with 'reality,' next to the 'real' world.

With cold eyes and indifferent mind the spectators regard the work. Connoissers admire the "skill" (as one admires a tightrope walker), enjoy the "quality of painting" (as one enjoys a pasty). But hungry souls go hungry away. The vulgar herd stroll through the rooms and pronounce the pictures "nice" or "splendid." Those who could speak have said nothing, those who could hear have heard nothing.

Color cannot stand alone.

I really believe that I am the first and only artist to throw not just the 'subject' out of my paintings, but every 'object' as well.

Music is the ultimate teacher.

A world of colors on the palette remaining... wandering... on canvases still emerging.

I applied streaks and blobs of colors onto the canvas with a palette knife, and I made them sing with all the intensity I could.

Painting took on a fabulous strength and splendor; the object was discredited as an indispensable element of the picture.

An empty canvas is a living wonder - far lovelier than certain pictures.

The composition is the organized sum of the interior functions of every part of the work.

The artist is not a 'Sunday child' for whom everything immediately succeeds. He does not have the right to live without duty. The task that is assigned to him is painful, it is a heavy cross for him to bear.

Everything shows me its face, its innermost being, its secret soul, which is more often silent than heard.

I value those artists who embody the expression of their life.

The sensations of colors on the palette can be spiritual experiences.

With few exceptions, music has been for some centuries the art which has devoted itself not to the reproduction of natural phenomena, but rather to the expression of the artist's soul, in musical sound.

Everything that is dead quivers. Not only the things of poetry, stars, moon, wood, flowers, but even a white trouser button glittering out of a puddle in the street... Everything has a secret soul, which is silent more often than it speaks.

In the hierarchy of colors, green represents the social middle class, self-satisfied, immovable, narrow.

Almost without exception, blue refers to the domain of abstraction and immateriality.

In general, therefore, color is a means of exerting a direct influence upon the soul. Color is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many strings. The artist is the hand that purposefully sets the soul vibrating by means of this or that key.

The eyes are hammers.

Colors produce a spiritual vibration, the impression they create is important only as a step towards this vibration.

It should not be forgotten that art is not a science where the latest 'correct' theory declares the old to be false and erases it.

The more abstract is form, the more clear and direct its appeal.