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German Expressionism

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  • Vasily Kandinsky. Frontcover (Landscape with Figure and Phoenix) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
    Frontcover (Landscape with Figure...
    1909 (executed 1907)
    Vasily Kandinsky. Frontcover (Landscape with Figure and Phoenix) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
  • Vasily Kandinsky. Title page (Flame) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
    Title page (Flame) from...
    1909 (executed 1907)
    Vasily Kandinsky. Title page (Flame) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
  • Vasily Kandinsky. The Knights (Les Chevaliers) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
    The Knights (Les Chevaliers) from...
    1909 (executed 1907)
    Vasily Kandinsky. The Knights (Les Chevaliers) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
  • Vasily Kandinsky. The Birds (Les Oiseaux) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
    The Birds (Les Oiseaux) from...
    1909 (executed 1907)
    Vasily Kandinsky. The Birds (Les Oiseaux) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
  • Vasily Kandinsky. The Church (L'Église) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
    The Church (L'Église) from...
    1909 (executed 1907)
    Vasily Kandinsky. The Church (L'Église) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
  • Vasily Kandinsky. The Birch Trees (Les Bouleaux) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
    The Birch Trees (Les Bouleaux)...
    1909 (executed 1907)
    Vasily Kandinsky. The Birch Trees (Les Bouleaux) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
  • Vasily Kandinsky. The Women in the Woods (Les Femmes aux Bois) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
    The Women in the Woods (Les Femmes aux...
    1909 (executed 1907)
    Vasily Kandinsky. The Women in the Woods (Les Femmes aux Bois) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
  • Vasily Kandinsky. Back cover (Hills, Trees, Clouds and Figure) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)
    Back cover (Hills, Trees, Clouds...
    1909 (executed 1907)
    Vasily Kandinsky. Back cover (Hills, Trees, Clouds and Figure) from Xylographs (Xylographies). 1909 (executed 1907)

About the portfolio

Heather Hess, German Expressionist Digital Archive Project, German Expressionism: Works from the Collection. 2011.

Maidens in peasant costumes dance in forests outside of medieval cities, and knights ride in service of an idealized world. Xylographies (Xylographs) sounds Kandinsky's longing for the Old Russia of his imagination, a fairy-tale land of spiritual harmony. In these prints, Kandinsky reduces identifiable form and dematerializes figures and ground under a veil of decorative patterning, leaving only the most essential aspects decipherable. Kandinsky devalued recognizable subject matter, stating in an exhibition catalogue published in 1910, "Speaking of secrets through secrets? Is that not the content?"

Kandinsky likened printmaking to music, and his process here draws out "inner sound" of his subject matter. The portfolio's title is an antiquated word for woodcut, though it also suggests another wood instrument, the xylophone. Kandinsky placed two bars of an unconventional musical composition on the title page, above an image of a mounted rider, a figure he repeatedly used to symbolize the fight for new art.

PUBLISHING HISTORY

The Paris-based Symbolist periodical Les Tendances Nouvelles, which had previously published thirty-three woodcuts by Kandinsky, issued this portfolio comprising reproductions of woodcuts from 1907. Kandinsky had befriended the publication's editor, Alexis Mérodack-Jeaneau, while living in Paris from 1906 to 1907.

Vasily Kandinsky (French, born Russia. 1866–1944)

The Portfolio

Xylographies (Xylographs)

Date:
1909 (prints executed 1907)
Medium:
Portfolio of eight heliogravures after woodcuts (including front cover, back cover and title page)
Dimensions:
composition (see child records); sheet: 12 5/8 x 12 5/8" (32 x 32 cm)
Publisher:
Tendances Nouvelles, Paris
Printer:
unknown
Edition:
1000
Credit Line:
Gift of Nina Kandinsky
Copyright:
© 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Reference:
Roethel Annotations 5, page 437.
MoMA Number:
2454.1967.1-8
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