AFTER WASSILY KANDINSKY (c.1953)
Composition II, 1953
initialed and dated within the plate
lithograph printed in colours
printed by Mourlot, Paris,
published by Maeght, Paris, after his 1924 painting.
An early champion of abstract painting, Wassily Kandinsky is known for his lyrical style and innovative theories on nonfigurative art. In his 1910 treatise Concerning the Spiritual In Art, Kandinsky made famous his belief that abstract colors and forms can be used to express the “inner life” of the artist. Kandinsky taught this and other lessons at the Bauhaus, the historic Weimar institution that brought together artists including Joseph Albers, Lazlo Maholy-Nagy, and Piet Mondrian, amongst others. Kandinsky had a strong interest in the relationship between art and classical music, this theme apparent in his orchestral Composition VI (1913), where colliding forms and colors move across the canvas. In 1911 Kandinsky played a central role in organizing Der Blaue Reiter, a group of artists named in part after Kandinsky’s favorite colour, blue.