Minneapolis Institute of Art

Kleine Welten IV

Vassily Kandinsky

Date

1922

Medium

Color lithograph

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This lithograph is the fourth in a series of prints entitled Small Worlds published in 1922 at the Bauhaus, the famed school of art and architecture in Weimar, Germany, where Kandinsky taught from 1921 to 1933. In each of the abstracted compositions Kandinsky utilized a theory of art he had developed as a leader of the Blue Rider artists' group a decade earlier. Each form and color in the composition is governed by a principle of inner necessity that is supposed to speak directly to the soul of the viewer. In this work, the yellow acts as an aggressive color, while the green and purple are more restrained. Tensions arise from the interaction of geometric and organic forms. The result is a microcosm governed by its own laws and rules of engagement. Russia, Europe

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