Small Worlds VII (Kleine Welten VII)
Vasily Kandinsky
European Art
Vasily Kandinsky created this lithograph as he was moving away from figuration and toward using a complex vocabulary of nonobjective forms and colors to express spiritual content. Here, curving arabesque lines and geometric shapes suggest organic or kinetic forces interacting to create a miniature universe, as suggested by the work’s title, Small Worlds.
The work comes from a portfolio Kandinsky published that was meant to highlight the unique qualities of different printmaking processes. Lithography appealed to him because it could produce a potentially limitless number of impressions—something the artist believed made it particularly modern and democratic.
MEDIUM
Color lithograph on wove paper
DATES
1922
DIMENSIONS
Image: 10 5/8 x 9 3/16 in. (27 x 23.3 cm)
Sheet: 13 15/16 x 11 3/16 in. (35.4 x 28.4 cm)
(show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed "Kandinsky" in pencil, lower right margin, signed in stone, lower left with monogram
ACCESSION NUMBER
58.108.11
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Stephen Currier
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Vasily Kandinsky (Moscow, Russia, 1866 – 1944, Neuilly–sur–Seine, France). Small Worlds VII (Kleine Welten VII), 1922. Color lithograph on wove paper, Image: 10 5/8 x 9 3/16 in. (27 x 23.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Stephen Currier, 58.108.11. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.108.11_transpc002.jpg)
EDITION
Edition: 230
IMAGE
overall, 58.108.11_transpc002.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© artist or artist's estate
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