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Lot Essay
Executed in 1926, shortly after the Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau, Zum Rosa is a seminal work from Kandinsky's Bauhaus period that reflects many of the elements outlined in the treatise Point and Line to Plane which Kandinsky had published earlier in the year.
One of Kandinsky's key preoccupations in both his work and his treatise at this time was the systematic search for a harmonious resolution to the dynamic relationship between the circle and the triangle. For Kandinsky, these two geometric forms were, "the two primary, most strongly contrasting plane figures" (Point and Line to Plane, Dover Publications 1979) and the resolution of this contrast was, he believed, of central importance to the 'spiritual' development of his art. Towards this end, he set his students at the Bauhaus exercises whereby they had to use a combination of shapes as an expression of aggression when the triangle is dominant, of calm with the square dominant and of interiorization or deepening when the circle is dominant.
In the same way that Kandinsky believed that every colour had a 'sound', by which he meant an 'inner resonance' or 'spiritual vibration' which played a crucial role in the relationship of forms to one another, he believed geometric shapes contained similar energies. For him, the ultimate form was a circle which was "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 the most clearly to the fourth dimension." (Kandinsky as quoted in a letter from Oct. 12. 1930, published in W. Grohmann, Kandinsky, Life and Work, 1930)
For Kandinsky, painting was a means to the understanding of the laws of nature and the spirit, an organising force on the way to the fourth dimension, that mystical realm where all arts would be synthesised into one transcendant culture. It was primarily for this reason that he taught at the Bauhaus and why he taught many disciplines other than painting which he and Paul Klee only began to teach in 1925.
In the present work, the dynamic relationship between the circle and the triangle is given a dramatic tension by the transformation of the triangle into a pointed arrow seemingly on the point of piercing the 'fourth dimensional' circle. From the bottom of the painting a series of curved lines - described by Kandinsky as a mixture of 'obstinacy' and 'indulgence' - give a sense of organic origins at the bottom of the painting. These origins transform into geometric elements that rise towards the central tension encapsulated by the relationship of the arrow and the circle at the top of the painting. The whole carefully constructed progression of shapes is given a harmonious unity by Kandinsky's masterful and, despite his theorising, largely intuitive use of colour.
One of Kandinsky's key preoccupations in both his work and his treatise at this time was the systematic search for a harmonious resolution to the dynamic relationship between the circle and the triangle. For Kandinsky, these two geometric forms were, "the two primary, most strongly contrasting plane figures" (Point and Line to Plane, Dover Publications 1979) and the resolution of this contrast was, he believed, of central importance to the 'spiritual' development of his art. Towards this end, he set his students at the Bauhaus exercises whereby they had to use a combination of shapes as an expression of aggression when the triangle is dominant, of calm with the square dominant and of interiorization or deepening when the circle is dominant.
In the same way that Kandinsky believed that every colour had a 'sound', by which he meant an 'inner resonance' or 'spiritual vibration' which played a crucial role in the relationship of forms to one another, he believed geometric shapes contained similar energies. For him, the ultimate form was a circle which was "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 the most clearly to the fourth dimension." (Kandinsky as quoted in a letter from Oct. 12. 1930, published in W. Grohmann, Kandinsky, Life and Work, 1930)
For Kandinsky, painting was a means to the understanding of the laws of nature and the spirit, an organising force on the way to the fourth dimension, that mystical realm where all arts would be synthesised into one transcendant culture. It was primarily for this reason that he taught at the Bauhaus and why he taught many disciplines other than painting which he and Paul Klee only began to teach in 1925.
In the present work, the dynamic relationship between the circle and the triangle is given a dramatic tension by the transformation of the triangle into a pointed arrow seemingly on the point of piercing the 'fourth dimensional' circle. From the bottom of the painting a series of curved lines - described by Kandinsky as a mixture of 'obstinacy' and 'indulgence' - give a sense of organic origins at the bottom of the painting. These origins transform into geometric elements that rise towards the central tension encapsulated by the relationship of the arrow and the circle at the top of the painting. The whole carefully constructed progression of shapes is given a harmonious unity by Kandinsky's masterful and, despite his theorising, largely intuitive use of colour.