Wassily Kandinsky Felson,1909
1909
About the Item
- Creator:Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944, Russian)
- Creation Year:1909
- Dimensions:Height: 6.05 in (15.37 cm)Width: 6.05 in (15.37 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU29221098153
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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- Allerheiligen- All Saints Day.By Wassily KandinskyLocated in New York, NYKANDINSKY, Wassily. Allerheiligen- All Saints Day. Original three-color woodcut (red, yellow ochre, blue – with olive green). 1911. Signed with the monogram...Category
1910s Blue Rider Abstract Prints
MaterialsWoodcut
- Scene for a Fairy TaleBy Edward WadsworthLocated in New York, NYWADSWORTH, Edward. Scene for a Fairy Tale, ca 1918. Woodcut printed in black on cream wove paper, Signed in pencil (which is rare for a Wadsworth rarely signed his woodcuts). Ref: Colnaghi 126. [Exhibited as Untitled Abstract] Edward Wadsworth was an English artist, most famous for his close association with Vorticism. He painted, often in tempera, coastal views, abstracts, portraits and still-life. He was also an engraver on wood and copper. In the First World War he was involved in transferring dazzle camouflage...Category
1910s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsWoodcut
- Soleil RecercléBy Hans ArpLocated in New York, NYARP, Jean. Soleil Recerclé 61 pp. Illustrated with 18 woodcuts plus a signed colour woodcut frontispiece on Rives. 1966. Large folio, 18 1/2 x 14 3/8"( 475 x 380 mm,) loose as iss...Category
1960s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsWoodcut
- "Le Pacte".By Louis MarcoussisLocated in New York, NY"Le Pacte", Paris: Editions Forcade, 1930. In Gold Leaf Frame. Original etching printed in black ink on japon. Hand signed with artist’s monogram lower left, an impression of the f...Category
1930s Cubist Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching
- Gewerbemuseum, Basel/Licht Reklame. 1928.By Charles Karl HidenlangLocated in New York, NYHindenlang, Charles [Karl]. Gewerbemuseum, Basel/Licht Reklame. 1928. Color lithograph. Printed by Wasserman, Basel. 35 1/5 x 50 1/4." Hiddenlang was known primarily as a muralist with interests in painting, glassware, ceramics, stage and graphic design. Born in Basel and educated at the city's Gewerbeschule. The Kunsthalle Basel dedicated to him in 1965 along with Dick and Karl Otto...Category
1920s Bauhaus Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- From Miroir du Poète AlbumBy André MassonLocated in New York, NYColor aquatint on black backround from Miroir du Poete, published by Louis Broder, Paris, 1960. II/VI of 6 on japon of a total edition of 66. Signed and numbered in pencil by the art...Category
1960s Surrealist Abstract Prints
MaterialsAquatint
- 'Improvisation 7' original first ed. woodcut from 'Klänge' by Wassily KandinskyBy Wassily KandinskyLocated in Milwaukee, WIThe present woodcut print comes from 'Klänge (Sounds),' a book of original graphics and poetry by Wassily Kandinsky. This first edition was released in an edition of 300, each book signed and numbered by the artist. The title of the album and this particular print, 'Improvisation,' demonstrated Kandinsky's interest in music and how abstract musical forms could be translated into images on a two-dimensional surface. This particular composition is difficult to read, but through the abstraction, one can make out various figures and a landscape beyond. 7.5 x 5 inches, image 22 x 19.5 inches, frame Woodcut in black ink on laid paper (watermark Van Gelder Zonen) Signed with encircled 'K' in the block, lower right Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent acid free archival materials including silk-lined matting with 1/4 inch bevel, museum glass, and a gold-gilded moulding Ref. Roethel 124 The Museum of Modern Art described 'Klänge (Sounds)' as follows: Vasily Kandinsky's self-described "musical album," Klänge (Sounds), consists of thirty-eight prose-poems he wrote between 1909 and 1911 and fifty-six woodcuts he began in 1907. In the woodcuts Kandinsky veiled his subject matter, creating increasingly indecipherable images (though the horse and rider, his symbol for overcoming objective representation, runs through as a leitmotif). This process proved crucial for the development of abstraction in his art. Kandinsky said his choice of media sprang from an "inner necessity" for expression: the woodcuts were not merely illustrative, nor were the poems purely verbal descriptions. Kandinsky sought a synthesis of the arts, in which meaning was created through the interaction of, and space between, text and image, sound and meaning, mark and blank space. The experimental typography shows his interest in the physical aspects of the book. Klänge is one of three major publications by Kandinsky that appeared shortly before World War I, alongside Über die Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) and the Blaue Reiter almanac...Category
1910s Blue Rider Abstract Prints
MaterialsWoodcut
- 'Improvisation 7' second ed. woodcut from 'Klänge' by Wassily KandinskyBy Wassily KandinskyLocated in Milwaukee, WI'Improvisation 7' second ed. woodcut from 'Klänge' is a woodcut print created by Wassily Kandinsky. The present woodcut print comes from the second edition of 'Klänge (Sounds),' a book of original graphics and poetry by Wassily Kandinsky. The title of the album and of this print, 'Improvisation,' demonstrated Kandinsky's interest in music and how abstract musical forms could be translated into images on a two-dimensional surface. This particular composition is difficult to read, but through the abstraction, one can make out various figures and a landscape beyond. Originally carved and printed in 1911, this second edition print was done ca. 1938. It is a woodcut in black ink on woven paper. Signed with encircled 'K' in the block, lower right (from the book, signed in ink, ed. 117/300) Image Size: 7 1/2" x 5 inches Frame Size: 22 1/4" x 18 3/4" Ref. Roethel 124 Artist Bio: The Museum of Modern Art described 'Klänge (Sounds)' as follows: Vasily Kandinsky's self-described "musical album," Klänge (Sounds), consists of thirty-eight prose-poems he wrote between 1909 and 1911 and fifty-six woodcuts he began in 1907. In the woodcuts Kandinsky veiled his subject matter, creating increasingly indecipherable images (though the horse and rider, his symbol for overcoming objective representation, runs through as a leitmotif). This process proved crucial for the development of abstraction in his art. Kandinsky said his choice of media sprang from an "inner necessity" for expression: the woodcuts were not merely illustrative, nor were the poems purely verbal descriptions. Kandinsky sought a synthesis of the arts, in which meaning was created through the interaction of, and space between, text and image, sound and meaning, mark and blank space. The experimental typography shows his interest in the physical aspects of the book. Klänge is one of three major publications by Kandinsky that appeared shortly before World War I, alongside Über die Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) and the Blaue Reiter almanac...Category
1910s Blue Rider Abstract Prints
MaterialsWoodcut, Laid Paper
- 'Nuits de la Fondation Maeght' original lithograph event posterBy (after) Wassily KandinskyLocated in Milwaukee, WIThis poster, published in 1971 for the Fondation Maeght, proudly boasts a lithographic rendering of Wassily Kandinsky's 1922 mural plans for the Juryfreie exhibition in Germany. It w...Category
1970s Blue Rider Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- LiegendeBy Erich HeckelLocated in New York, NYA very good, richly-inked impression of this color woodcut. Second state (of 2). Signed and dated in pencil. Published by R. Piper & Co., Marées-Gesellschaft, Munich. From "Der Dritt...Category
1910s Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsColor, Woodcut
- Plate 12By Wassily KandinskyLocated in Fairlawn, OHPlate 12 From: 10 Origi, 1942 Signed in the block with the artist's initials lower left (printed) From: 10 Origin Not from the First edition 100, published by Allianz-Verlag, Zurich,...Category
1970s Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsWoodcut
- Ecce Homo VIIBy Werner DrewesLocated in Fairlawn, OHEcce Homo VII Woodcut, 1921 Signed, titled, and dated in pencil by the artist One of only three known impressions Created while the artist was studying at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germ...Category
1920s Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsWoodcut