Wassily Kandinsky

Nina Kandinsky, Paris (the artist's wife)
Kleeman Galleries, New York (acquired circa 1957)
Sale: Parke-Bernet, New York, 2nd May 1974, lot 148
Private Collection, New York (purchased at the above sale)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Paris, Galerie René Drouin, Kandinsky: gouaches, aquarelles, dessins, 1947, no. 61.
Liège, Association pour le progrès intellectuel et artistique de la Wallonie, Kandinsky: gouaches & dessins, 1947, no. 60
New York, Kleeman Galleries, Wassily Kandinsky 1866-1944, 1957, no. 17, illustrated in the catalogue
Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen & Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Kandinsky. Kleine Freuden: Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, 1992, no. 168, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Artist's Handlist, Watercolours, listed as 'ii 1939,620, La forme blanche (Aq + gouache)'
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky Watercolours, Catalogue Raisonné, London, 1994, vol. II, no. 1255, illustrated p. 459, illustrated in colour p. 437

Executed on black paper, laid down on board. This work is in excellent condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

La Forme Blanche was executed in Paris in 1939, at a time when the Surrealists dominated the cultural scene and the city was alive with avant-garde artists. Kandinsky had a long association with Paris which he had first visited in 1889 and in the last days of 1933. He decided to emigrate to Paris from an increasingly hostile Germany. He and his wife settled at 135 Boulevard de la Seine in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a wealthy, inner suburb of Paris, where he was to live out the remainder of his life. On 23rd January  in 1934 Kandinsky wrote to his friend Jawlensky: 'We don't want to leave Germany permanently (we've got deep roots there!), but we'd like to stay in Paris for a couple of years... Our flat's on the sixth floor, with a great view of the Seine, the hills behind it, and a huge expanse of sky. The Bois de Boulogne is a couple of minutes away' (quoted in Jelena Hahl-Koch, Kandinsky, London, 1993, p. 322).

Kandinsky's Parisian works explored the mysteries of nature's fundamental elements. In La Forme Blanche the sensuous, suspended forms are created from what Kandinsky described as an 'inner necessity' to find the most apposite form of expression. Like his contemporaries Klee and Arp, Kandinsky had become interested in nature and organic growth. He began to produce anthropomorphic forms in his paintings which grew from ideas about zoology and embryology. Kandinsky found inspiration in images of embryos and would clip photographs and diagrams from scientific articles on deep-sea life. Vivian Endicott Barnett suggested that 'Kandinsky's images of amoebas, embryos and marine invertebrates convey spiritual meaning of beginning, regeneration and a common origin of all life. Because of his spiritual beliefs and his ideas on abstract art, Kandinsky would have responded to the meanings or rebirth and renewal inherent in the new imagery of his Paris pictures' (V. E. Barnett in Kandinsky in Paris (exhibition catalogue), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Musuem, New York, 1985, p. 87).