Entwicklung in Braun

In Berlin, Kandinsky painted one last great work: the ghostly Développement en brun, with its evocative palette, brown being associated with the Nazis. The very simple formal elements (rectangle, circle, circular arc, and triangle) are lightly drawn on a flat surface. The painting summarizes his research into the effects of transparency obtained with the help of an airbrush. Christian Zervos, the founder of Cahiers d’Art, has this to say: "It's a large canvas painted brown with, in the center, a light opening which is like hope, which gives this painting an extraordinary power, at the same time as causing us to dream of the infinite, which our lives limit from all sides." Kandinsky took that glimmer of hope with him to exile in Paris, where he finished this great painting.