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Zwei Reiter vor Rot (Two Riders Against a Red Backround)

Vasily Kandinsky

European Art

The evocative horse and rider in this print was a significant motif for Vasily Kandinsky that represented his path toward abandoning objective representation in favor of an expressive, spiritual abstraction. In 1911 he and Franz Marc founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a group of artists in Germany who sought to express inner nature and spiritual experience within their art. Two Riders Before Red is one of fifty-seven woodcuts included in Kandinsky’s influential book Sounds.
MEDIUM Color woodcut on laid paper
DATES 1911
DIMENSIONS Sheet: 6 × 7 11/16 in. (15.2 × 19.5 cm) Image: 4 3/16 × 6 1/4 in. (10.6 × 15.9 cm)  (show scale)
COLLECTIONS European Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 1993.217.3
CREDIT LINE Gift of the Benjamin family in memory of Robert S. Benjamin
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Vasily Kandinsky (Moscow, Russia, 1866 - 1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France). Zwei Reiter vor Rot (Two Riders Against a Red Backround), 1911. Color woodcut on laid paper, Sheet: 6 × 7 11/16 in. (15.2 × 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Benjamin family in memory of Robert S. Benjamin, 1993.217.3. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1993.217.3_bw.jpg)
STATE Trial
IMAGE overall, 1993.217.3_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT © artist or artist's estate
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Vasily Kandinsky (Moscow, Russia, 1866 - 1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France). <em>Zwei Reiter vor Rot (Two Riders Against a Red Backround)</em>, 1911. Color woodcut on laid paper, Sheet: 6 × 7 11/16 in. (15.2 × 19.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Benjamin family in memory of Robert S. Benjamin, 1993.217.3. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1993.217.3_bw.jpg)