Kandinsky Drawings Vol 2: Catalogue Raisonn Volume Two: Sketchbooks

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Vasily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 and, at the age of thirty, decided to study painting in Munich. Although he travelled extensively, Kandinsky lived primarily in Germany until 1914 and again from 1922-1933, when he taught at the Bauhaus. He moved to Paris in 1934 and continued to draw and paint until his death in 1944. The two-volume catalogue raisonne of Kandinsky's drawings publishes many drawings for the first time and presents new insights into the artist's creative process. This second volume is devoted to Kandinsky's thirty-eight sketchbooks that have remained intact. Intended as a companion to Volume One, it illustrates and documents all the sketchbook pages with drawings. The sketchbooks belong primarily to the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich and to the Musee National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Many of the drawings, which date from 1889 to 1943, have never been published before. Ms. Barnett contributes a text on Kandinsky's sketchbooks, an aspect of his work that has not been previously studied. In addition there is an appendix of rare wood sculptures and decorative objects that Kandinsky created as well as an appendix with new information and color reproductions of paintings and watercolours included, but not illustrated, in previous volumes. The two volumes on the drawings complete the series of catalogues raisonnes of Kandinsky's work. Indispensable for scholars, collectors and art lovers, they follow the same format and high standard as the previous volumes on the oil-paintings and the watercolours.

Reviews

'If writing art history can be scientific, this is an excellent model... It is an achievement which sponsors, museums, collectors, salerooms and scholars will celebrate.' John Milner, The Times Literary Supplement

Author Bio

Vivian Endicott Barnett, formerly Curator of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, has prepared this two-volume Kandinsky Drawings: Catalogue Raisonne for the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich under the auspices of the Societe Kandinsky in Paris. Ms. Barnett is also the author of the highly acclaimed two-volume Kandinsky Watercolours: Catalogue Raisonne published by Philip Wilson (1992, 1994) as well as Vasily Kandinsky: A Colorful Life. The Collection of the Lenbachhaus, Munich (1995) and The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum (2002). A member of the Societe Kandinsky, she is internationally recognized as a Kandinsky scholar.