Russian-born artist and art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), was one of the
founders (with Franz Marc) of the modernist
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider)
group
in Germany. Kandinsky moved from Russia to Munich to study painting in 1896 and,
in 1911, formed
Der Blaue Reiter
to promote abstract artwork created from pure
emotion and spirituality that rejected the material world. He and his fellow artists
published
The Blue Rider Almanac
and
On the Spiritual in Art
(both 1911), which
argued that art, and abstract art in particular, had the capability to be spiritually
uplifting. Around this time, Kandinsky became professionally and personally involved
with German artist, Gabriele Münter (1877-1962), who was also an early member of
Der Blaue Reiter
(see lot 104). Munter and Kandinsky’s relationship lasted into the
1920s and she was instrumental in gaining greater exposure for Kandinsky’s work.
Kandinsky had only one work in the Armory Show, a recent painting called
Improvisation No. 27 (Garden of Love)
, 1912, which was lent by the Munich art dealer,
Hans Goltz. It represented one of just a few completely abstract works in the
exhibition of over 1,300 pieces. Alfred Stieglitz, who had translated portions of
On
the Spiritual in Art
for his July 1912 issue of
Camera Work
, promptly purchased
Kandinsky’s painting on seeing it in the Armory Show for $500 (roughly $11,800
today). While Arthur B. Davies and Walt Kuhn, two organizers of the Armory Show,
considered German painters “faux Fauves” and seemingly derivative of the French,
Stieglitz understood the great significance of Kandinsky’s work and felt the American
public was at fault for not recognizing its importance. He was even more incensed
and vocal about the “stupidity of most of those in charge of the exhibition.”
One of the few examples by a German artist in the Armory Show,
Improvisation No. 27
,
was shown in Gallery G with fellow German artists Ernst L. Kirchner (lots 107 and 108)
and Olga Oppenheimer. Strangely enough, the extremely modern German works were
hung with comparatively conservative figurative British works (lots 134-139), a strange
juxtaposition that failed to benefit either group.
Improvisation No. 27
is currently in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from the collection of Stieglitz. Included among
the many American artists in the Armory Show significantly influenced by Kandinsky’s
painting were Marsden Hartley (lot 213) and Katherine Dreier.
