Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
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Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Gemassigt

Details
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
Gemassigt
signed with the monogram and dated 'K 25' (lower left); signed with monogram, dated and numbered 'K 1925 - no 307' (on the reverse)
oil on board
27 1/8 x 19 7/8in. (68.9 x 49cm.)
Painted in April 1925
Provenance
Nina Kandinsky, Paris.
Nierendorf Gallery, New York, December 1933 - circa 1947.
Nina Kandinsky, Paris, circa 1947.
Louis Clayeux, Paris.
Galerie Maeght, Paris.
Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne (acquired from the above).
Galerie Beyeler, Basel.
Acquavella Galleries, New York.
Bought from the above by the present owner.
Exhibited
Brunswick, Gesellschaft der Freunde junger Kunst, Jubiläums-Austellung: W. Kandinsky, May-June 1926, no. 2. This exhibition later travelled to Dresden, Galerie Arnold; Berlin, Galerie Neumann und Nierendorf (no. 39); Munich, Neue Kunst Hans Goltz (no. 18), Oct. 1926-April 1927, no. 16.
Cleveland, Museum of Art, Kandinsky: A Retrospective View, Feb.-May 1937, no. 12 (as Composition 307). This exhibition later travelled to New York, Nierendorf Gallery; Cambridge, Harvard University, The Germanic Museum; Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, University Gallery.
New York, Nierendorf Gallery, Kandinsky, Mar. 1941, no. 44.
New York, Museum of Non-Objective Paintings, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, In Memory of Wassily Kandinsky, Mar.-May 1945, no. 91. Paris, Galerie Maeght, Kandinsky, Nov. 1953, no. 6 (catalogue printed in Derrière le mirroir, nos. 60-61, Oct.-Nov. 1953). Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Wassily Kandinsky: Gemälde 1900-1944, July-Sept. 1970, no. 62 (illustrated).
Zurich, Galerie Maeght, Kandinsky:Ölbilder, Gouachen, Zeichnungen, April 1972, no. 9.
Madrid, Fundación Juan March, Kandinsky, 1923-1944, Oct. 1978-Jan. 1979, no. 3 (illustrated). This exhibition later travelled to Seville, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo.
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.
Sale room notice
Please note this work is also titled 'Gemäßigt' (on the reverse).

Please note the following correct provenance for this lot is:
Nina Kandinsky, Paris.
Nierendorf Gallery, New York, December 1933-circa 1947.
Nina Kandinsky, Paris circa 1947.
Louis Clayeux, Paris.
Galerie Maeght, Paris.
Adrien Maeght, Paris.
Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne (acquired from the above).
Galerie Beyeler, Basel.
Acquavella Galleries, New York.
Purchased from the above by the present owner.
Please also note that the inclusion of Jean Paul Ledeur, Paris in the provenance seen in the catalogue is incorrect.

Please note the following additional literature details:
The Artist's Handlist, vol. II, no. 307.
W. Grohmann, Kandinsky, Life and Work, New York, 1958, p. 335, no. 307 (illustrated, p.365, no. 193).
H.K. Roethel and J.K. Benjamin, Kandinsky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil-Paintings, New York, 1984 (Volume II, 1916-1944), p. 703, no. 750 (illustrated).

Lot Essay

Gemässigt was painted in 1925, the same year that the Bauhaus was relocated from Weimar to Dessau. "The Bauhaus provided a context in which a range of artistic points of view were allowed to flourish, within the parameters of a commitment to geometric forms and structural principles. Here, as elsewhere, in Europe where abstract art was developing in the teens and twenties, it was believed that geometry provided a universal language." (C. Polinq, Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, New York, 1983, p.49)

Kandinsky contributed to this artistic debate and the formulation of his own artistic evolution with a series of articles in 1925. Kandinsky further explored these ideas in his treatise on line and form, Punkt und Linie zu Fläche (Point and Line to Plane), published in Munich in 1926. The paintings of that year are closely related to the theoretical formulations set forth in the book, where texture, line, colour and form are used to create visual tension and balance. A related work of 1925 entitled Helle Einheit is now in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

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