Lot 4A
WASSILY KANDINSKY(1866-1944)Mitte-violett (Violet Centre)
Amended
14 May 2025, 17:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$445,000 inc. premium
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WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944)
Mitte-violett (Violet Centre)
signed with the artist's monogram and dated '28' (lower left); signed and dated again and inscribed 'No 329 - "Mitte-violett"' (on the reverse of the artist's mount)
watercolor and pen and India ink on paper laid down on the artist's mount
17 15/16 x 15 1/2 in (45.5 x 39.2 cm) (sheet size)
21 1/16 x 15 11/16 in (53.5 x 39.9 cm) (mount size)
Executed in November 1928
signed with the artist's monogram and dated '28' (lower left); signed and dated again and inscribed 'No 329 - "Mitte-violett"' (on the reverse of the artist's mount)
watercolor and pen and India ink on paper laid down on the artist's mount
17 15/16 x 15 1/2 in (45.5 x 39.2 cm) (sheet size)
21 1/16 x 15 11/16 in (53.5 x 39.9 cm) (mount size)
Executed in November 1928
Footnotes
Provenance
Christian Zervos Collection, Paris (a gift from the artist).
Heinz Berggruen Collection, Paris.
Saidenberg Gallery, New York, by 1954.
Arnold Maremont Collection, Chicago (acquired from the above in 1954).
Private collection, New York.
Private collection, US.
Richard Gray Gallery, New York, by 1986.
Robert & Norma Lifton Collection, US (acquired from the above in 1986).
Thence by descent to the present owner.
Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Zak, Exposition d'aquarelles de Wassily Kandinsky, January 15-31, 1929, no. 64 (later traveled to The Hague & Brussels).
Literature
The artist's handlist, Watercolours, listed as 'xi 1928, 329, Mitte-violett.'
V.E. Barnett, Kandinsky, Watercolours, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, 1922-1944, New York, 1994, no. 919 (illustrated p. 243).
Mitte-violett (Violet-Centre), executed in 1928, is a radiant work on paper whose precise compositional order demonstrates Wassily Kandinsky's commitment to the geometric forms and structural principles so deeply ingrained in his work at the height of his involvement with The Bauhaus. The geometric, abstract language that Kandinsky developed throughout his time at The Bauhaus (1922-1933) is employed in the present work with brilliant precision. The forms in Mitte-violett (Violet-Centre) are predominantly angular and circular, endowing the entire composition with a dynamic tension that could only derive from, in the artist's own words: "the two primary, most strongly contrasting plane figures, the triangle and the circle" (W. Kandinsky, 'Point and Line to Plane' in K. Lindsay & P. Vergo, Kandinsky: Complete Writings on Art, vol. II, Boston, 1982, p. 600). While deceptively simple, this highly finished watercolor is, in fact, a mystical study of tensions between form, space, and color. For Kandinsky, a composition was equally defined by form as by the emotive properties of color: warm colors surging, rising, expanding, and cool colors plunging, receding, shrinking. The soft, harmonious hues that emanate from the composition's surface form a stark contrast with the hard-edged geometric shapes whose sparse severity is reminiscent of an architectural diagram.
The present work is a stunning articulation of Wassily Kandinsky's belief in an underlying, universal order of harmony at the root of all creation. Rather than serving as a conduit for the literal transcription of this ideal, Kandinsky's faith in the power of line, color, and form is intuited through the profound lyricism of Mitte-violett (Violet-Centre). This work was gifted by Kandinsky to Christian Zervos, an influential art critic, collector, and publisher whose journal, Cahiers d'Art, played a crucial role in promoting the artist's work and ideas. Mitte-violett (Violet-Centre) is a strikingly intricate work from a formative time in Kandinsky's career, and is emblematic of a significant relationship in the artist's life.
Saleroom notices
Please note the cataloging should read as follows:
Provenance
Christian Zervos Collection, Paris (a gift from the artist circa 1929).
Heinz Berggruen Collection, Paris.
Saidenberg Gallery, New York, by 1954.
Arnold Maremont Collection, Chicago (acquired from the above in 1954).
Private collection, New York.
Sale: Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, May 16, 1984, lot 145.
Private collection, US (acquired at the above sale).
Paul & John Herring Collection, New York.
Richard Gray Gallery, New York, by 1986.
Robert & Norma Lifton Collection, Chicago (acquired from the above in 1986).
Thence by descent to the present owner.
Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Zak, Exposition d'aquarelles de Wassily Kandinsky, January 15-31, 1929, no. 64 (later traveled to The Hague & Brussels).
Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, The Maremont Collection at the Institute of Design, April 5-30, 1961, no. 45 (titled 'Composition').
Washington D.C., Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Treasures of 20th Century Art from The Maremont Collection, April 1 - May 3, 1964, no. 58 (titled 'Composition').
Chicago, Richard Gray Gallery, Richard Gray Gallery: Forty Years, September 5 - October 3, 2003.
Literature
The artist's handlist, Watercolours, listed as 'xi 1928, 329, Mitte-violett.'
C. Derouet & N. Ivanoff, Vassily Kandinsky Correspondances avec Zervos et Kojève, Paris, 1992, pp. 32, 34 & 36.
V.E. Barnett, Kandinsky, Watercolours, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, 1922-1944, New York, 1994, no. 919 (illustrated p. 243).
