+ Expand
Dimensions: 30.5 by 40.5cm.
12 by 16in.
+ Expand
Provenance: Nina Kandinsky, Neuilly-sur-Seine
Dr Helmut Beck, Stuttgart (acquired from the above through Galerie Gutbier, Rottach-Egern circa 1944-50)
Sale: Sotheby's, London, The Beck Collection, 8th October 2002, lot 9
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
+ Expand
Exhibited: Dresden, Graphisches Kabinett Hugo Erfurth, Sieben Bauhausmeister, 1925
Barmen (Wuppertal), Ruhmeshalle; Stuttgart, Kunsthaus Schaller; Hanover, Kestner-Gesellschaft and Hamburg-Altona, Kunstsalon Maria Kunde, Meister des Staatlichen Bauhauses in Weimar, 1925-26
Dresden, Galerie Arnold (Ludwig Gutbier), Kandinsky: Jubiläums-Ausstellung zum 60. Geburtstage, 1926, no. 60
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Tentoonstelling de Onhafhankelijken 1912-1927, 1927, no. 163
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Ausstellung Giacometti, Kandinsky, Soldenhoff, 1927, no. 120
Brussels, Galerie L'Epoque, Kandinsky, 1928, no. 39
Wiesbaden, Neues Museum, Nassauischer Kunstverein, 30 deutsche Künstler aus unserer Zeit, 1930, no. 60
Munich, Haus der Kunst, Die Maler am Bauhaus, 1950, no. 99
Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, 50 Jahre Bauhaus, 1968, no. 112, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Neuere Kunst aus württembergischem Privatbesitz: I. Klassische Moderne, 1973, no. 66
Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Klee und Kandinsky: Erinnerungen an eine Künstlerfreundschaft anlässlich Klees 100. Geburtstag, 1979, no. 77, illustrated in the catalogue
Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen and Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Kandinsky. Kleine Freuden: Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, 1992, no. 87, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
+ Expand
Literature: The Artist's Handliste, watercolours: 'XI 1923, 104, Schwarzes Dreieck'
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky, Watercolours Catalogue Raisonné 1922-1944, London, 1994, vol. II, no. 658, illustrated p. 89
+ Expand
Notes: Schwarzes Dreieck is perhaps the most important watercolour that Kandinsky executed in the mid-1920s, a period that saw an important development in both his art and his theory of art. 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 1922-23, 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 and straight lines rather than by undefined shapes and loosely applied paint. This shift to strict geometric forms reflects the influence of Russian Constructivist art, to which he was exposed during the war years spent in Moscow. With artists such as Kandinsky and Moholy-Nagy, however, constructivist art was gaining international scope and becoming an important artistic force in Germany, where geometry was accepted as a universal artistic language. Whilst developing this increasingly abstract vocabulary, Kandinsky's art did not fully adopt the practical, utilitarian quality characteristic of much of constructivist art. The poetic and spiritual elements of his earlier works remained the underlying force of his art in 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 peiod. In Schwarzes Dreieck, a dynamic contrast is created between the large plain area of the black triangle and a cluster of smaller, brightly coloured forms. A complex network of intersecting planes set against a pure white background builds a structural tension in the composition, while at the same time infusing the work with a poetic, playful character. In 1923, the year the present work was executed, Kandinsky published his book Punkt und Linie zu Fläche (Point and Line to Plane), which outlined his theories of the basic elements of artistic composition, expounding his ideas about abstraction, form and colour. 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 constrasting plane figures' (W. Kandinsky, quoted in Clark Poling, 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 circular form, representing freedom from gravity, is further accentuated by the use of contrasting colours.
In 1923-24, Kandinsky produced a number of works based primarily on the triangle, in which he explored its inherent values, as well as its interaction with other forms. Writing about these works, that culminated in Komposition VIII (fig. 3), Clark Poling commented: 'Basic shapes and straight and curved lines predominate in these paintings, and their black lines against white or light backgrounds maintain a schematic and rigorous quality. The large size and transparency of many of the forms and their open distribution across the picture plane give these compositions a monumentality and an expansiveness despite their relative flatness. Whereas certain abstract features of the series derive from Russian precedents, their vertically positioned triangles and planetary circles refer to landscape. [...] Nevertheless, the transparency of forms, their rigorous definition and floating quality maintain the abstract character of the works' (ibid., p. 51).
