Landscape with Red Spots

1913

Oil on canvas

Venice. Peggy Guggenheim Collection

This landscape was evoked by Alpine sights by the town of Murnau in Upper Bavaria where Gabriele M?nter, Kandinsky’s girlfriend, bought a house in 1909. We see here how the artist liberates the colour from its descriptive function and brings out the hidden expressive meaning. Referring to the title of the painting, it is appropriate to remember that the painter, when he discussed the red colour, said that it actively “opens” in the direction of the viewer in contrast to, for example, “closed” cold blue. As to the shapes, there are also changes in the direction of vagueness: in the works of this period objects are still discernible, but the trend for movement to abstraction is evident.