Vasily Kandinsky Born Moscow (formerly Russian Empire, now Russia), 1866; died Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 1944
About this artwork
Vasily Kandinsky, along with Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter, and Alexei Jawlensky, was a founding member of Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider), a loose alliance of artists based in Munich. Often working in a common palette using expressive brushwork, they shared a belief in the symbolic and spiritual importance of forms and colors, including their effect on emotions and memories. Blaue Reiter also promoted a spontaneous, intuitive approach to painting, looking to non-Western, European medieval, and folk art for inspiration. Here the troika, a traditional carriage drawn by three horses, and the hand-painted frame, which Kandinsky made especially for this work, speak to the powerful influence these sources had on the artist.
Date
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Kandinsky, 1901-1913 (Berlin: Der Sturm, 1913), p. 56 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Late Arthur Jerome Eddy, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1922), cat. 39.
“Two Exhibitions of Modern Art,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 16, 5 (October 1922), p. 69 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, The Arthur Jerome Eddy Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), cat. 7 (ill.).
Arts Club of Chicago, Wassily Kandinsky Memorial Exhibition, exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club of Chicago, 1945), cat. 50.
Society of the Four Arts, Exhibition of Russian Paintings, exh. cat. (Palm Beach, Fla.: Society of the Four Arts, 1945), cat. 47.
University Gallery, University of Minnesota, German Expressionism in Art, 1905-1935: Painting, Sculpture, Prints, exh. cat. (Minneapolis: University Gallery, University of Minnesota, 1950), cat. 42.
Lindsay, Kenneth C., “The Genesis and Meaning of the Cover Design for the First Blaue Reiter Exhibition Catalogue,” Art Bulletin 35 (March 1953), p. 49.
Selz, Peter, German Expressionist Painting (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957), pp. 204-5, pl. 83 (ill.).
Grohmann, Will, Wassily Kandinsky: Life and Work, trans. Norbert Guterman (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1958), pp. 104, 107, 331 (no. 120), 353 (ill. 53).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 249.
Messer, Thomas M., “Kandinsky en Amerique,” XXe Siècle 27 (December 1966), p. 113.
Speyer, A. James, and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth Century European Painting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 47, no. 2C1.
Washton Long, Rose-Carol, Kandinsky, the Development of an Abstract Style (Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), pl. 108 (ill.), pp. 98, 99, 133, 179, note 45.
Roethel, Hans K., and Jean K. Benjamin, Kandinsky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil-Paintings, vol. 1 (London: Published for Sotheby Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers, 1982), cat. 378 (ill.).
Hahl-Koch, Jelena, Kandinsky (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), pp. 147 (color ill. 185), 148.
Silver, Larry, Art in History (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993).
Fineberg, Jonathan, Mit dem Auge des Kindes : Kinderzeichnung und Moderne Kunst, exh. cat. (München: Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus; Stuttgart: Gerd Hatje, 1995), pp. 60, 65 (color ill. 3.16), 239 (no. 3.16).
___, The Innocent Eye: Children’s Art and the Modern Artist (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), pp. 50, 55 (color ill. 3.17), p. 230 (no. 3.17).
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Moderner Bund, July 1912, hors cat.
Frankfurt, Galerie Goldschmidt, 1912.
Chicago, Art Institute, Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Late Arthur Jerome Eddy, September 19-October 22, 1922, cat. 39.
Chicago, Art Institute, The Arthur Jerome Eddy Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture, December 22, 1931-January 17, 1932, cat. 7 (ill.).
San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Circuit Exhibition, 1932.
Palm Beach, Fla., Society of the Four Arts, Exhibition of Russian Paintings, February 16-March 12, 1945, n. pag., cat. 47.
Chicago, Arts Club, Wassily Kandinsky Memorial Exhibition, November 1945, cat. 50.
Minneapolis, University Gallery, University of Minnesota, German Expressionism in Art, 1905-1935: Painting, Sculpture, Prints, October 23-November 27, 1950, cat. 42.
Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Mit dem Auge des Kindes: Kinderzeichnung und Moderne Kunst, May 31-August 20, 1995, cat. 3.16 (color ill.); traveled to Bern, Kunstmuseum, September 7-November 26, 1995.
Arthur Jerome Eddy (1859–1920), Chicago, by 1920; by descent to his wife Lucy O. Eddy (1863-1931) and son Jerome O. Eddy (1891-1951), Chicago, 1920; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1931.
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