WASSILY KANDINSKY

(1866-1944)

Treffpunkt (Meeting-Point)

Footnotes

Provenance
Galka E. Scheyer Collection, Los Angeles (acquired from the artist in 1928).
Nina Kandinsky Collection, Paris (the artist's wife; acquired from the above in 1945).
Galerie Maeght, Paris.
Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris.
Private collection, New York, by 1992.
Acquired from the above by the previous owner; their sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 8, 2013, lot 430.
Acquired at the above sale by the late owner.

Exhibited
Oakland, The Oakland Art Gallery, Kandinsky, 1929, no. 14 (titled 'Point of Contact').
Los Angeles, Braxton Gallery, The Blue Four, Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, March 1-15, 1930, no. 25 (titled 'Point of Contact').
San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The Blue Four, Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, April 8-22, 1931, no. 14 (titled 'Point of Contact').
Oakland, The Oakland Art Gallery, The Blue Four, Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, 1931, no. 15 (titled 'Point of Contact').
Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago, The Blue Four, Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, April 1-15, 1932, no. 97 (titled 'Point of Contact').
Copenhagen, Liniens Samenslutning, Efter-Expressionisme, Abstrakt Kunst, Neoplasticisme, Surrealisme, 1937.
London, Guggenheim Jeune, Wassily Kandinsky, 1938, no. 26 (later traveled to Bristol & Gloucester; titled 'Sur pointes').
Lucerne, Galerie Rosengart, Kandinsky Exhibition, Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings, 1953, no. 3.
Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kandinsky, Kleine Freuden, Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, March 7 - May 10, 1992, no. 113 (later traveled to Stuttgart).

Literature
The artist's handlist, Watercolours, listed as 'v 1928, 252, Treffpunkt.'
V.E. Barnett, Kandinsky, Watercolours, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, 1922-1944, New York, 1994, no. 840 (illustrated pp. 141 & 205).


Treffpunkt (Meeting-Point) is an apt title for this work, created at the height of Kandinsky's involvement with the Bauhaus movement. Like the equine motif of Kandinsky's earlier Blaue Reiter period, the circular harmony created by the meeting of one continuous line became a prevalent theme in the artist's later work and his contributions towards the realization of a "science of art." This theory, realized through both psychological study and an aphoristic art practice, was grounded in his belief that energy, movement, and rhythm enlivened one's perception of basic pictorial elements, thus triggering an inner resonance or spiritual vibration that could evoke a powerful emotional response. Bolstered by his time at the Bauhaus, much of Kandinsky's work from the 1920s onwards experimented with line, geometric forms, and how their relationship dictated the picture plane. Kandinsky's interest in the contrasting relationship between angular and curved forms resulted in many works in which the circle is the principal or sole motif. "The circle," Kandinsky wrote to art historian Will Grohmann in 1930, "is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium" (quoted in W. Grohmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Life and Work, New York, 1958, p. 204). To Kandinsky, the circle was brimming with potentialities made inherent through its form.

In the present work, Kandinsky's abstract composition is both dynamic and carefully balanced, highlighting the extraordinary relationships of geometric forms and colors interacting across space and depth. The expressive response evoked by the tension, contrasts, and consonance of these forms, Kandinsky believed, held a transcendental meaning. In fact, Kandinsky's frequent usage of circles was, in part, due to their link with the cosmic, stating that: "of the three primary forms... the circle points most clearly to the fourth dimension" (quoted in W. Grohmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Life and Work, New York, 1958). The circle's inherent cosmic symbolism led Kandinsky to consider how circles could represent all things of a higher, spiritual nature beyond the realm of the physical world. Treffpunkt's modulated background of dark greys, divergent from the vibrant colors typical of Kandinsky's work, endows the work with an atmospheric quality and evokes within viewers the association of a night sky. The transparent intersections of geometric forms help lead the viewer's eye into the infinite distance, much like how one would gaze into a starry night's sky.

Treffpunkt was first acquired by the esteemed art collector and dealer Emilie Esther Scheyer, commonly referred to by the moniker Galka, in 1928. Scheyer was a tireless promoter of European modernism and played an integral role in the American reception of the artist group comprised of Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, Alexei Jawlensky, and Wassily Kandinsky himself. Galka helped to establish this group, which she later coined the "Blue Four", by organizing traveling exhibitions across America and Mexico. While the bulk of Galka's extensive art collection was bequeathed to the Pasadena Art Institute following her death, Treffpunkt was returned to the collection of the artist's wife, Nina Kandinsky, in 1945. The present work was indeed one of many Kandinsky pieces from Scheyer's collection that were returned to the artist's wife in post-World War II Europe, after the death of Wassily Kandinsky in 1944. Nina Kandinsky's acquisition of her late husband's work strongly suggests that Scheyer presented Nina with the opportunity to purchase the art back before she died, signaling both the unique personal bond between Scheyer and the Kandinsky family and Nina's personal attachment to the present work.

This highly finished work on paper, part of Kandinsky's tremendous output of watercolors in 1928, demonstrates the artist's unparalleled grasp of color and form. Treffpunkt's abstract, modern style also clearly bears the influence of Bauhaus conceptual principles such as their emphasis on the architectural through geometry. Unlike many of his Bauhaus contemporaries, though, Kandinsky's abstract forms are endowed with pictorial significance. Kandinsky's form-creating power led to entities of a higher order, fulfilling Kandinsky's oft-stated desire for his compositions to become complete worlds in and of themselves. Through symbolism, these worlds express a newer, truer reality than is familiar to us. The individual forms, lines, and colors in Treffpunkt do not deign to have a direct association with figurative reality, but, when combined, the dynamic tension between these compositional elements conveys an underlying energy and universal order of harmony.