1938
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“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.
Find original Wassily Kandinsky art, including paintings and prints, on 1stDibs.
Klänge: Reiterweg (Equestrian trail), Roethel #111
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Original woodcut 6.38 x 8.25 in (16.21 x 20.96 cm) Framed 18.32 x 20.44 in #111 in the catalogue Raisonné of Kandinsky's Graphic Works by Hans K. Roethel
Woodcut
Klänge: Improvisation 7 Woodcut Print, Abstract, Framed, Circa 1910
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Original woodcut 7.5 x 4.88 in (19.05 x 12.4 cm) Framed 19.32 x 16.69 in #124 in the catalogue Raisonné of Kandinsky's Graphic Works by Hans K. Roethel
Woodcut
Klänge: Improvisation 4 Woodcut Print, Abstract, Framed, Circa 1910
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Original woodcut 5.75 x 7 in (14.6 x 17.78 cm) Framed 17.63 x 18.88 in #117 in the catalogue Raisonné of Kandinsky's Graphic Works by Hans K. Roethel
Woodcut
Kandinsky, Abstract Composition, c. 1935, Posthmous 1st edition, Roethel 24B
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Composition Woodcut, c. 1935, printed 1966 Signed in the block lower left (see photo) This is the first printing of this image. Created in 1935, it was never printed during Kandinsky's lifetime. It is a POSTHUMOUS printing. Published by Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, Éditions XXe Siècle, Paris Issued in XXe Siècle, nouvelle série, no. 27, December 1966, Centenaire de Kandinsky Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued Edition commonly reported as approximately 2,000 Condition: Excellent Image size: 9 1/8 x 10 15/16 inches Reference: Roethel 24b Created in 1935 but apparently left unprinted during Kandinsky’s lifetime, Composition was first issued posthumously in December 1966 in the Kandinsky centenary number of the Parisian art review XXe Siècle. The woodcut was printed from Kandinsky’s original block rather than reproduced photographically. It is therefore properly described as an original, posthumously printed woodcut—not as a reproductive print “after” Kandinsky. Contemporary documentation identifies the composition as having been cut by the artist in 1935 and first published by Éditions XXe Siècle in 1966. Publication details and dimensions The print belongs to Kandinsky’s final period, begun after the closing of the Bauhaus and his move from Germany to Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, in 1933. Its vocabulary differs markedly from the romantic landscapes, horsemen and apocalyptic subjects of his early Munich woodcuts. The forms are now self-contained and biomorphic: circles, hooks, floating linear elements and irregular organic silhouettes coexist within an open field. Although nonrepresentational, they suggest minute organisms, astronomical bodies or signs belonging to an invented visual language. The black-and-white medium gives the image unusual clarity. Solid forms function like sustained musical tones, while thin lines, dots and isolated marks provide accents and intervals. Areas of untouched paper are equally active, allowing the components to float without conventional gravity or horizon. Kandinsky organizes these elements through visual tension rather than perspective: large and small, dense and open, curved and angular forms establish a rhythmic equilibrium across the sheet. The woodcut process was fundamental to Kandinsky’s development. Its demand for simplification encouraged him to reduce images to essential contrasts of shape, line and ground. Nearly two-thirds of his approximately two hundred prints were made between 1900 and 1911, and his increasingly abstract woodcuts for Klänge played a decisive role in his movement away from representation. MoMA’s Kandinsky printmaking overview In this late composition, Kandinsky returned to the medium with the more refined geometry and organic imagery of his Paris years. The circumstances of the 1966 publication are integral to the work’s history. XXe Siècle, directed by the Italian-born critic and publisher Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, regularly included original prints by major modern artists. Issue no. 27, entitled Centenaire de Kandinsky, commemorated the hundredth anniversary of Kandinsky’s birth. It contained two original Kandinsky woodcuts...
Woodcut
Klänge: Zwei Reiter vor Rot (Two Riders in Red), Roethel #95
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Original color woodcut 4.13 x 6.19 in (10.49 x 15.72 cm) Framed 13.88 x 15.94 in #95 in the catalogue Raisonné of Kandinsky's Graphic Works by Hans K. Roethel
Woodcut
Klänge: Berge Woodcut Print, Abstract Style, Framed, Circa 1910-1919
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Original color woodcut 4.63 x 7 in (11.76 x 17.78 cm) Framed 16.5 x 18.82 in #122 in the catalogue Raisonné of Kandinsky's Graphic Works by Hans K. Roethel This print is a whimsical...
Woodcut
