In Gray

Three centimetres of white lie between the coloured motif and the black outer edge - a clear pause before the eye is drawn into the dense interweaving of lines, points and curving forms. The canvas, framed in black at the sides, is also part of this boundary, so that the composition already has its own definition before Friedegarde encloses it. On the Leonardo canvas with its satin-finished surface, both the subtle gradations of the grey pictorial space and Kandinsky’s graphic lines remain clearly legible: Black sweeps across the surface in arcs and sharp diagonals, red provides heavy accents, whilst blue, pink, green and yellowish patches flicker in between. Wassily Kandinsky painted ‘In Grey’ in 1919, at a time when the break from representational art in his work had long since been completed, and colour, form and rhythm had taken centre stage. The grey by no means functions merely as a background; it opens up a tranquil, at times cloudy space in which the forms meet, overlap or repel one another. On the left, the action condenses into an almost knotty swarm of forms; on the right, individual figures are given more breathing space, without for that reason becoming unambiguously representational, and an inner movement runs through the entire composition, at times reminiscent of music, at others of a chaotic conversation.

I find the white border particularly striking in this motif, because it creates a moment of distance from the interplay of forms whilst simultaneously forming a visible colour gradient between Kandinsky’s broken grey and the deep black of the frame. At the upper corners, one can clearly see how the cool grey of the picture first meets the bright white of the canvas and only then merges into the dark frame, ensuring that even the blue and red lines near the edge remain clearly defined. Measuring 60 by 44 centimetres, the work retains a manageable width, yet the horizontally oriented composition is able to play out its many directions of movement; the canvas is supported by a stretcher frame, with no glass in front of it. Friedegarde traces a black line along the outer edge, just 15 millimetres wide and 14 millimetres high-straight and narrow enough not to compete with Kandinsky’s forms. Her black, however, does not stand in isolation from the picture, for the same darkness appears repeatedly within it as a contour, a triangle, an arc or a compact area in the centre. Ultimately, a contradiction remains that one cannot help but dwell upon: the title “In Grey” evokes stillness, whilst the painting itself is full of movement and tension.