Wassily Kandinsky
Composition (Roethel 201), Wassily Kandinsky
1939

Name: Composition (Roethel 201), Wassily Kandinsky
Brand: Wassily Kandinsky
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Original Limited Edition Woodcut on wove paper. Inscription: Signed in the block, as issued. Edition: 1,200. Excellent condition. Notes: From the volume, XXe Siècle, Paris, N° 5-6, 1939. Published by Gualtiero di San Lazzaro, Paris; printed by Mourlot, Paris. WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstraction in western art and in influence to the Modern masters including, Picasso. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in Odessa, Ukraine, where he graduated from Odessa Art School. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession, he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat (today Tartu, Estonia). Kandinsky began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30. In 1896 Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying first at Anton Ažbe's private school and then at the Academy of Fine Arts. He returned to Moscow in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I. Following the Russian Revolution, Kandinsky "became an insider in the cultural administration of Anatoly Lunacharsky," and helped establish the Museum of the Culture of Painting. However, by then "his spiritual outlook... was foreign to the argumentative materialism of Soviet society", and opportunities beckoned in Germany, to which he returned in 1920. There he taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He then moved to France, where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939 and producing some of his most prominent art. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944, three days before his 78th birthday.

Creator:

Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944, Russian)

Creation Year:

1939

Dimensions:

Height: 12.5 in (31.75 cm)Width: 9.125 in (23.18 cm)

Medium:

Woodcut

Movement & Style:

Modern

Period:

1930-1939

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Auburn Hills, MI

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU1465213994042

Shop All Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky

“Color is a means of exerting a direct influence upon the soul,” wrote the pioneering abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky. The Russian-born painter and theorist dedicated his life to using abstract compositions of form and color to express deep emotion as well as to depict the language of music through visuals.

Kandinsky was part of a crucial moment in art history — the early 20th century — that saw the rise of movements like Cubism. He embraced styles such as Surrealism and Fauvism and was a leading figure in bringing together Der Blaue Reiter (the name means “The Blue Rider” after one of Kandinsky’s paintings) in 1911, a group of avant-garde artists in Munich, including Paul Klee and Franz Marc, who explored spiritual concepts through their art as a response to the materialism of the time. Kandinsky also led courses on analytical drawing and color at the Bauhaus. He was appointed by founder and architect Walter Gropius to teach in Weimar in 1922. He taught at all three of the legendary school’s locations and remained with the institution until its forced closure by the Nazi party in Berlin.

The artist had the rare and unusual trait of synesthesia, the neurological ability to perceive things using multiple senses. In Kandinsky’s case, it was the gift of “seeing” music, and music appeared in every aspect of his work, including the titles of his series “Compositions,” “Improvisations” and “Impressions.” He once described the experience of painting using a musical metaphor: “I had little thought for houses and trees, drawing colored lines and blobs on the canvas with my palette knife, and making them sing just as powerfully as I knew how.”

While Kandinsky isn’t the first abstract artist — mystically inclined painter Hilma af Klint was making nonrepresentational art well before him — he certainly had the biggest impact on establishing the style. His paintings inspired the likes of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and other Abstract Expressionists. From his Untitled (First Abstract Watercolor) painted in 1910 to future works, his unique take on using color and flair for bold, experimental compositions, Kandinsky is one of the most important figures of early-20th-century art.

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