Lot Essay
As a Russian national, Kandinsky was expelled from Germany at the outbreak of World War I in August, 1914. He moved to Switzerland with Gabriele Münter, and then went on to Russia without her at the end of the year. They met again briefly in 1916 when Kandinsky spent several months in Stockholm before returning to Moscow for the duration of the war.
This upheaval in Kandinsky's life discouraged him from painting in 1915, but he resumed working in Stockholm. The present drawing with its twisting, serpentine shapes, reflects the anxiety the artist felt during this period. On the other hand, his compositions rely increasingly on a central focus from which the forms appear to radiate, encompassed within a border. This hints at a classicizing trend in his work, which is in part the result of his exposure to Constructivism and Suprematism, and reaches its fruition during his work at the Bauhaus in the 1920s.
This drawing was the fifth page of a series of eight in a sketchbook with a cover dated by the artist 'Moscow 1916'. The drawings were later separated, and four are presently in the collection of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Vivian Endicott Barnett will include this drawing in the forthcoming drawings volume of the Kandinsky catalogue raisonné.
This upheaval in Kandinsky's life discouraged him from painting in 1915, but he resumed working in Stockholm. The present drawing with its twisting, serpentine shapes, reflects the anxiety the artist felt during this period. On the other hand, his compositions rely increasingly on a central focus from which the forms appear to radiate, encompassed within a border. This hints at a classicizing trend in his work, which is in part the result of his exposure to Constructivism and Suprematism, and reaches its fruition during his work at the Bauhaus in the 1920s.
This drawing was the fifth page of a series of eight in a sketchbook with a cover dated by the artist 'Moscow 1916'. The drawings were later separated, and four are presently in the collection of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Vivian Endicott Barnett will include this drawing in the forthcoming drawings volume of the Kandinsky catalogue raisonné.