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Lot Essay
Kandinsky returned to Germany from Moscow in December 1921, and in June 1922 arrived at the Bauhaus in Weimar on an invitation from Walter Gropius. While at the Bauhaus Kandinsky sought to understand the affinity between the elements and laws of nature and those of the arts. To do this successfully, he believed, would pave the way for a synthesis of all arts of the spirit, and the ultimate transcendence of specialization in the name of culture. "The realms that have recently striven to unite are: art in general, in the forefront of which are the so-called plastic arts (architecture, painting, sculpture), science (mathematics, pysics, chemistry, physiology, etc. and industry Our work at the Bauhaus is of a synthetic nature. Synthetic methods also, of course, embrace the analytical. The inter-relation of these two methods is inevitable." (W. Kandinsky, "Die Grundelemente der Form" Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar, 1919-1923, 1923, quoted in K. D. Lindsay and P. Vergo, Wassily Kandinsky: Complete Writings on Art, Boston, 1982, pp. 499-450).
The present work reflects a transitional bridge between the free form abstractions of his pre-war Munich period, the landscape-derived paintings of his Russian period, and the harder, more geometrical style he evolved in the 1920s. The central structure of Ohne titel is a swirling vortex of forms arranged along a diagonal axis. This axis, composed of a hard, quill-like line thrusting towards the upper right corner, and a soft curved arc, refers to the lance-bearing horseman --a motif derived from works of the Munich period. Kandinsky frequently employed this axis in his works of the early twenties, including the watercolor "Arc and Point (February 1923, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York). Yet here, Kandinsky has graduated from symbolic narrative to a juxtaposition of characteristics in harmony versus opposition. Amid contradictory indications of perspective and spatial tension, he also encorporates abstracted references to landscape elements - another motif from his Moscow years. The composition is stabilized by the presence of a dark green, pulsating cloud-like form in the upper right corner-a motif frequently used in the 1920s-as well as a grid in the upper left corner. Kandinsky first used the grid and the checkerboard in the Russian period oil painting On White of 1920 (coll. Russian Museum, Leningrad). By this time he began to encorporate elements of Constructivism, particularly that of Rodchenko. The grid and checkerboard continued to develop great significance for Kandinsky while at the Bauhaus, where they were also used in student exercises on design.
For Kandinsky, expressive energy ultimately came from the inherent forces or tensions of the elements, and their psychological and perceptual effects. Kandinsky's works of 1923 possess a relatively equal mixture of free and geometric forms. The vivid colors and spatial tensions of Ohne titel vibrate in a symphony of abstraction. By 1925, the year the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, Kandinsky's work had already taken on a much harder, flatter geometric feeling that corresponded with his increasingly scientific interests.
The present work reflects a transitional bridge between the free form abstractions of his pre-war Munich period, the landscape-derived paintings of his Russian period, and the harder, more geometrical style he evolved in the 1920s. The central structure of Ohne titel is a swirling vortex of forms arranged along a diagonal axis. This axis, composed of a hard, quill-like line thrusting towards the upper right corner, and a soft curved arc, refers to the lance-bearing horseman --a motif derived from works of the Munich period. Kandinsky frequently employed this axis in his works of the early twenties, including the watercolor "Arc and Point (February 1923, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York). Yet here, Kandinsky has graduated from symbolic narrative to a juxtaposition of characteristics in harmony versus opposition. Amid contradictory indications of perspective and spatial tension, he also encorporates abstracted references to landscape elements - another motif from his Moscow years. The composition is stabilized by the presence of a dark green, pulsating cloud-like form in the upper right corner-a motif frequently used in the 1920s-as well as a grid in the upper left corner. Kandinsky first used the grid and the checkerboard in the Russian period oil painting On White of 1920 (coll. Russian Museum, Leningrad). By this time he began to encorporate elements of Constructivism, particularly that of Rodchenko. The grid and checkerboard continued to develop great significance for Kandinsky while at the Bauhaus, where they were also used in student exercises on design.
For Kandinsky, expressive energy ultimately came from the inherent forces or tensions of the elements, and their psychological and perceptual effects. Kandinsky's works of 1923 possess a relatively equal mixture of free and geometric forms. The vivid colors and spatial tensions of Ohne titel vibrate in a symphony of abstraction. By 1925, the year the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, Kandinsky's work had already taken on a much harder, flatter geometric feeling that corresponded with his increasingly scientific interests.