straight lines and circles

Thought behind the thought
We look at life as a linear progression, from childhood to youth to old age. We also look at many processes and chains of events as irreversible, a one-way affair. We are so fond of laying down straight roads, writing between straight lines and straightening out our problems.
Why is it then, that we end up running in circles all the time???

About the art
Lines and circles have fascinated artists for centuries, and are two of  the basic elements that make up a visual composition. Abstract paintings are at times, pure exercises in putting together these elements together in a visually stimulating way. Like these very interesting compositions by Wassily Kandinsky, one of the greatest abstract painters of the 20th century.

composition, 1923

Trained to be a lawyer, Kandinsky gave up his successful career to devote himself totally to painting. Kandinsky due to his active creativity and organizational skills always attracted anything intellectual, restless, striving, which was in the world of art of that time. In 1901 he founded Phalanx, an art group, in Munich and started a school, in which he taught himself. He, along with other members of his group arranged exhibitions, in which, according to the artist, "the accent was made on revealing associative properties of color, line and composition.

 black and violet 1923

 Blue 1923

Circles in a circle 1923

Opposing the Constructivist artists, who lay emphasis on exact analysis of materials for their constructive arrangement or setting, Kandinsky said that "Just because an artist uses 'abstract' methods, it does not mean that he is an 'abstract' artist. It doesn't even mean that he is an artist. Just as there are enough dead triangles (be they white or green), there are just as many dead roosters, dead horses or dead guitars. One can just as easily be a "realist academic" as an "abstract academic". A form without content is not a hand, just an empty glove full of air".

 in the black square 1923

 parallel diagonals 1925

unequal 1932

After joining the well-known Bauhaus, Germany (the Higher school of construction and art designing), he again taught and developed his ideas. They dealt, first of all, with the deep analytical study of separate elements of a picture, which resulted into "Point and Line to Plane" in 1926. Kandinsky also worked much and experimented with color, applying his analytical foundation and the conclusions in his teaching. Kandinsky's works again underwent changes: individual geometrical elements increasingly entered the foreground, his palette was sated with cold color harmonies which, at times, are perceived as a dissonance, the circle is used differently, as a sensual symbol of perfect form.

Credit and source of information

http://www.wassilykandinsky.net