Ohne Titel. 1930.
Pen and India ink drawing.
Barnett 742. Monogrammed and dated lower left. On firm wove paper, laid on cardboard. 23,3 x 15 cm (9,1 x 5,9 in), size of sheet. Backing cardboard: 28 x 22,4 cm (11 x 8,8 in).
Eight copies of the de-luxe edition by Will Grohmann, Kandinsky, Editions Cahiers d'Art, Paris 1930, were accompanied by an original drawing of which this heet is one. [CB].

PROVENANCE: Christian Zervos, Paris.
Editions Cahiers d'Art, Paris (till 1989).
Base Gallery, Tokyo
Sotheby's New York, 14 November, 1990, lot 147.
Improvvisazione Prima, Galleria d'Arte di Paolo Dal Bosco, Trento (on rear with label).
Private collection.

Kandinsky was born in Moscow on 4 December 1866. After studying law and economics in Moscow he decided to become a painter and moved to Munich in 1896. Here he began studying at Anton Azbè's art school, then went to Franz von Stuck who trained him from 1900 to 1901 and finally, completed his studies at the Munich Kunstakademie. As early as 1902 he was already teaching at the 'Phalanx-Malschule' and soon became the president of the artist group. Here he met Gabriele Münter who was one of his pupils in his painting class. They went on extensive trips abroad together and then moved into a shared apartment in Munich in 1908. An educational journey to Murnau in Upper Bavaria impressed Münter so much that she bought a house here where she and Kandinsky would spend many summers working intensely. Kandinsky was one of the founding members of the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung' in 1909, and one year later, in 1910, he made his first purely abstract watercolor. This revolutionary step towards abstraction was justified in his book 'Über das Geistige in der Kunst' which Kandinsky published in 1912. Together with his artist friends Paul Klee, August Macke and Franz Marc Kandinsky founded the 'Blauer Reiter' in 1912 and published the almanac with the same name together with Marc. Kandinsky spent the years of the First World War in Moscow, but returned to Germany in 1921. Walter Gropius invited him to teach at the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1922, where he founded the artist group 'Die Blauen Vier' together with Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger and Alexej von Jawlensky in 1924. Kandinsky took on German citizenship in 1928.

Kansinsky took a path over a style of freely associated renderings of nature to abstraction even before World War I. Drawings served the purpose of experimentation through all his artistic phases, to try out new ideas and considerations. At the Bauhaus Kandinsky was one of the most important and most innovative teachers. During these days he also made the small ink drawing "Komposition 147", which captures the observer with its seeming simplicity. In Kandinsky’s concept a "Komposition" is no arbitrary compilation of forms, but rather the result of a deliberate, thoroughly considered and executed idea. This drawing is particularly appealing for its reduction to the most immaculate contrast of all, black and white, bright and dark.

The Bauhaus, which had already moved to Dessau in 1925, moved once again in 1932, this time to Berlin, where it re-opened in spite of Nazi persecution, but had to close its doors permanently one year later. Kandinsky emigrated to France in 1934 and settled in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris. He adopted French citizenship shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. He continued working during the period of German occupation, in spite of the dangerous situation, until shortly before his death. Wassily Kandinsky died in his adopted home-country France on 13 December 1944. [CB].