An offset lithograph from an original painting by Kandinsky.
This image exemplifies his mature abstract vision using geometric precision and colour to express inner life.
It featured in Derriere Le Miroir, published n 1965 to accompany an exhibition at the Maeght Gallery in Paris, of Kandinsky's paintings created during 1927-1933 when he worked at the Bauhaus before it was closed down by Hitler for being too subversive and degenerate.
Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866. He grew up in the Ukrainian city of Odesa where he enjoyed music and learned to play the piano and the cello. Even as a child, the colours of nature dazzled him. Both music and colours would have a huge impact on his art later in life. Following study and an early career as a Teacher of Law, he later decided to change careers and become an artist and attended art school in Munich. Kandinsky's early paintings were landscapes that were heavily influenced by Impressionist artists as well as Pointillism and Fauvism. The most famous of his early works is "The Blue Rider" which he painted in 1903. Later he moved toward a more abstract style where shapes and colours were the subject. Over the next several years he would start to paint what would become known as Abstract Art and Kandinsky was one of the first artists to develop and work in this style. Kandinsky felt that he could express feelings and music through colours and shapes in his paintings. For example, he thought that yellow had the crisp sound of a trumpet and that certain colours placed together could harmonize like chords on a piano. The shapes he was most interested in were the circle, triangle, and the square. He thought the triangle would cause aggressive feelings, the square calm feelings, and the circle spiritual feelings. Kandinsky returned to Russia briefly, while refining his art and style, but his work was rejected by the Russian art world, so he returned to Germany to teach in the Bauhaus. When this was closed by the new Nazi regime, he moved to Paris where he lived until his death in 1944. Derrière le Miroir began publication in 1946 and was produced for thirty-five years. Aimé Maeght, initiator of Derrière le Miroir, had already made a few attempts to start publications illustrated with fine printed lithographs in colours in the years prior to the launch of Derrière le Miroir. The name, Derrière le Miroir was suggested by Jacques Kober, manager of Galerie Maeght. The gallery had opened in1945; the first number of Derrière le Miroir was released a year later. For this first issue Geer van Velde was invited to create lithographs to illustrate the publication. The lithographs in the first issue were printed by the Mourlot workshop in Paris. The first three issues of Derrière le Miroir were unsuccessful for Maeght as far as the edition size—the initial print-runs were far too large. From 30,000 for the first issue, the number was taken down to 10,000 for numbers two and three, until Derrière le Miroir number four was published in an edition of 1500. Subsequent issue sizes were much less. Maeght instituted a policy whereby unsold issues were recycled and used for the fabrication of new paper for the coming editions—this served to both conserve resources and limit subsequent edition sizes.With edition number four, the format for Derrière le Miroir was established. Lithographs in colours were key; text was limited to comments on the featuring artist's exhibition taking place in the Galerie Maeght. Galerie Maeght took on the leading role in Paris and presented all main artists including Braque, Matisse, Chagall, Léger, Bonnard, Chillida and many more. These all featured in lithographic form in Derrière le Miroir. The last edition, number 253, was published in 1982 and became a tribute to Aimé and Marguérite Maeght celebrating their work and 35 years of friendship with artists and poets.
