Spaightwood Galleries

120 Main Street, Upton MA 01568-6193

Last updated: 4-20-09
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Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866-1944): Klange III

Kandinsky 1 / Kandinsky 2 / Kandinsky 3 / Kandinsky 4
German Expressionism: Survey I / Survey II / Survey III

"Käthe Kollwitz and German Expressionism" featured over fifty works by Käthe Kollwitz plus additional works by Ernst Barlach, Rudolf Bauer, Max Beckmann, Peter Behrens, Heinrich Campendonck, Marc Chagall, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, Lyonel Feininger,
Conrad Felixmuller, Hans Fronius, Alfons Graber, Otto Greiner, Georg Grosz, Erich Heckel, Hannah Hoch, Karl Hofer,
Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, Ludwig Meidner, Edvard Munch,
Gabrielle Munter, Heinrich Nauen, Emile Nolde, Max Pechstein, Hilla von Rebay, Georges Rouault, Rudolf Schlichter,
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Siegfried Schott, Georg Tappert, Wilhelm Wagner, and others.

German Expressionist Drawings

The Russians: Chagall, Sonia Delaunay, Goncharova, Larionov, and Malevich
One of the most important artists of the twentieth century, Kandinsky was a founding member of Der Blaue Reiter group and one of the first to begin moving toweards pure abstraction. His works are to be found in every important museum in Europe and America. In Klange / Sounds, he combined poetry with woodcut to suggest the equivalence of the visible and the audible ("Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter," said Keats; Kandinsky might have agreed). In these woodcuts, one can see him leaving his Russian folk-art roots behind as the images he presents become less and less representational.

Select Bibliography: Wassily Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay & Peter Vergo (Da Capo, 1994); Wassily Kandinsky, On the Spiritual in Art ed. & trans. Hilla Rebay (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1946); Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky at the Guggenheim (Abbeville Press, n.d. [1983]); Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Watercolours 1900-1921 (Sotheby's, 1992); Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Watercolours 1922-1944 (Sotheby's, 1994); Vivian Endicott Barnett and Armin Zweite, Kandinsky: Kleine Freuden. Aquarelle und Zeichnungen (Prestel-Verlag, 1992); Christian Derouet, Kandinsky in Paris: 1934-1944 (Guggenheim Museum, 1985)l Hugo Düchting, Wassily Kandinsky 1866-1944: A Revolution in Painting (Benedikt Taschen, 1990); Peter Jelavich, and Peg Weis, Kandinsky in Munich: 1896-1914 (Guggenheim Museum,1982), François Le Targat, Kandinsky (Ediciones Poligrafa, 1986); G. Di. San Lazzaro, ed. Homage to Wassily Kandinsky (NY: Leon Amiel, 1976); Michel Seuphor, Abstract Painting: Fifty Years of Accomplishment from Kandinsky to Jackson Pollock (Abrams, 1964); Louise Averill Svendson, Kandinsky Watercolors: A Selection from The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Hilda von Rebay Foundation (Guggenheim Museum, 1980); Annette and Luc Vezin, Kandinsky and Der Blaue Reiter (Editions Pierre Terrail, 1992); Peg Weiss, Kandinsky in Munich: The Formative Jugendstil Years (Princeton University Press, 1979).

Prints: The Catalgoue Raisonné of Kandinsky's Prints by Hans K. Roethel is almost unavailable and terrifyingly expensive (it is also printed in German); all prints are identified by an "R" number after the title. A far more available work, also by Roethel, is The Graphic Work of Kandinsky: A Loan Exhibition (NY: The International Exhibitions Foundation, 1974). This show, organized by the Guggenheim Museum, opened there and circulated to the following institutions: The Cincinnati Art Museum, the Arkansas Arts Center, the Marion Kogler Mcnay Arts Institute (San Antonio), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Fort Worth Art Center, the William Nelson Rockhill Gallery of Art, Kansas City MO, the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Worcester Art Museum (MA), and The Phillips Collection, Washington DC.
Kahn fahrt / Boat voyage (Roethel 115). Original color woodcut, 1911. Edition: 345 impressions signed in the block with the monogram for Klange / Sounds (1913). There was also an edition (from which our impression comes) of c. 1200 impressions printed from the original block with the authorization of Kandinsky's widow, Nina, in 1955. Illustrated in The Graphic Work of Kandinsky. A reproduction of this woodcut was reproduced on the cover of a brochure published by the Madison Art Center for an exhibition entitled Madison Collects Modern Prints. Image size: 218x221mm. Price: $1275.
Berge / Mountains (Roethel 122). Original color woodcut, 1911. Edition: 345 impressions signed in the block with the monogram for Klange / Sounds (1913). There was also an edition of c. 1200 impressions (from which ouor impression comes) printed from the original block with the authorization of Kandinsky's widow, Nina, in 1951. There was also a third and final edition in 1966 for the art review XXe Siecle's Centenaire de Kandinsky celebration. Exhibited in Expressionnisme Europeen at the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1970. Illustrated in The Graphic Work of Kandinsky. Image size: 111x177mm. Price: $1050.
Allerheiligen / All Saints Day (Roethel 131). Original color woodcut, 1911. Edition: 345 impressions signed in the block with the monogram for Klange / Sounds (1913). There was also an edition of c. 1200 impressions printed from the original block with the authorization of Kandinsky's widow, Nina, in 1951; our impression is from this edition. Illustrated in The Graphic Work of Kandinsky. Image size: 218x217mm. Price: $1275.
The Last Judgment (Roethel 146). Original woodcut, 1912. Edition: 345 impressions signed in the block with the monogram for Klange / Sounds (1913). There was also an edition of unknown size printed from the original block with the authorization of Kandinsky's widow, Nina, in 1966. Our impression is from this edition. One of the last two works for Klange, this is also one of the most abstract pieces in the work. Illustrated in The Graphic Work of Kandinsky. Image size: 164x212mm. Price: $1050.
Improvisation 7 (Roethel 124). Original woodcut, 1911. Edition: 345 impressions signed in the block with the monogram for Klange / Sounds (1913). There was also an edition of c. 2000 impressions printed from the original block with the authorization of Kandinsky's widow and published by the deluxe art review, XXe Siecle. Ours is an impression on Arches from the latter edition. There are no signed proofs of any of the woodcuts for Klange. Image size: 190x125mm. Price: $1075.

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Spaightwood Galleries is located at 120 Main St (aka Highway 140) in Upton MA at the corner of Main St and Maple Ave in a rehabilitated Unitarian Church. For directions and visiting information, please call. We are, of course, always available over the web and by telephone (see above for contact information). Click the following for links to past shows and artists. For a visual tour of the gallery, please click here. For information about Andy Weiner and Sonja Hansard-Weiner, please click here. For a list of special offers currently available, see Specials.

Visiting hours: Noon to six Saturdays and Sundays; other times by arrangement. Please call to confirm your visit. Browsers and guests are welcome.