1913

This landscape was inspired by Alpine views near the town of Murnau in Upper Bavaria where Gabriele Münter, Kandinsky’s companion, bought a house in 1909. We see here how the artist liberates the color from its descriptive function and brings out the hidden expressive meaning. Referring to the title of the painting, it is appropriate to remember that Kandinsky, when discussing the color red, said that it actively “opens” toward the viewer in contrast to, for example, “closed” cold blue. As for the forms, there is also a shift toward vagueness: in the works of this period, objects are still discernible, but the trend toward abstraction is already evident.

More from 1913

More from Venice. Peggy Guggenheim Collection

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