Wassily Kandinsky

Galka E. Scheyer, Los Angeles (on consigment from the artist from 1924 until late1920s)
Lilia Méla (the artist's niece; a gift from the artist in June 1930)
Annely Juda Fine Art, London (acquired by 1970)
Private Collection (sold: Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London, 3rd December 1975, lot 127)
Galerie Berggruen, Paris (purchased at the above sale)
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above in 1975)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

New York, The Daniel Gallery, The Blue Four, 1925, no. 12
Oakland, The Oakland Art Gallery; Los Angeles, Los Angeles Museum & travelling in the USA, The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, 1926-27, no. 2
London, Annely Juda Fine Art, The Non-Objective World, 1970, no. 30, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen & Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Kandinsky. Kleine Freuden: Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, 1992, no. 91, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
London, The Royal Academy of Arts, Kandinsky: Watercolours and other Works on Paper, 1999, no. 79, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

The Artist's Handlist, Watercolours, listed as 'ii 1924, 118, Schweben'
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky Watercolours, Catalogue Raisonné, London, 1994, vol. II, no. 674, illustrated p. 97; illustrated in colour p. 75

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount at the reverse of the top two corners, floating in the mount. There is a repaired intermittent tear running diagonally from the centre lower edge to the centre right edge and a minor vertical crease to the left of the lower edge. There are some scattered small stains, mainly to the upper half of the composition. Apart from some minor surface dirt and some slight time staining, this work is in good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although the paper tone is warmer and less red in the original.
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Schweben, executed in 1924, is one of Kandinsky's most exquisite works produced in a period that saw an important development in both his artistic practice and theory. Having returned to Germany from Moscow after World War I, the artist started teaching at the Bauhaus school in Weimar in June 1922. He quickly became involved again in the German art world: he participated in a number of exhibitions, and his teachings and writings were crucial to the development of abstract art internationally.

In the early 1920s Kandinsky's work gradually moved away from the free-flowing irregular lines and shapes of his earlier years, towards a more geometric form of abstraction. His watercolours and paintings of this period are dominated by circles, triangles, straight lines and bound by border shapes (fig.1) rather than the more organic forms of his earlier works. Frank Whitford suggests that his imagery became more devoted to celebrating a singular sensory experience: 'The titles of these works - for example Vibration, Circling and the marvellous Floating [the present work] - provide an indication of what he wished such compositions to convey' (F. Whitford, op. cit., 1999, p. 69).

Kandinsky's recent acquaintance with the Russian avant-garde and the Revolution had a profound impact on his art; the influence of the constructivist aesthetic is evident in the present watercolour. Works made at the Bauhaus, such as Schweben, were created in a manner honed by a period of great experimentation with new forms and geometrical compostions. The privations of his life in Russia, induced by the Revolution, made it hard for him to find the space and materials needed for oil-painting. Therefore Kandinsky concentrated on producing extraordinarily sumptuous effects in watercolour that utilised unconventional techniques. However, whilst his mode of expression had altered, the poetic and spiritual elements of his earlier works remained the underlying force of his art throughout the 1920s.

During the Bauhaus years Kandinsky further developed his theories about the spiritual in art, and his ideas found a fresh expression in the paintings and watercolours of the period (figs. 1 & 2). In 1923 Kandinsky published his book Punkt und Linie zu Floche (Point and Line to Plane), which outlined his theories of the basic elements of artistic composition, which are evident in the dynamic contrast of the dense bordering squares and rectangles and the energetic forms within the body of the composition of the present work. Most notably, he developed his Theory of Correspondences, which emphasised a systematic study of pictorial elements, both in combining the forms of triangle and circle, considered by the artist to be 'the two primary, most strongly contrasting plane figures' (W. Kandinsky quoted in Kandinsky, Bauhaus and Russian Years (exhibition catalogue), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1983, p. 52). In the present work the dynamic relationship between the triangle, symbolising stability and ascension, and the circular form, representing freedom from gravity, is further accentuated by the use of contrasting colours.

Fig. 1, Wassily Kandinsky, Helle Klarheit, 1924, watercolour, gouache and pen and ink on paper, The Hilla von Rebay Foundation, New York


Fig. 2, Wassily Kandinsky, Gegenklänge, 1924, oil on panel, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris