Wassily Kandinsky

Succession de l'artiste
Collection Stroher, Dortmund
Otto Gerson, New York (jusqu'en 1961)
Galerie Beyeler, Bâle (1961)
Vente: Galleria Brera, Milan (novembre 1961)
Vente: Sotheby's Parke-Bernet, New York, 20 mai 1982, lot 37 
Art Point Gallery, Tokyo (1987)
Vente : Christie's, Londres, 9 décembre 1999, lot 568,

The Artist's Handlist, Watercolours, vi 1938, 599, ("Deux cotes (Temp)")
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky Watercolours catalogue raisonné, 1922-1944, vol.II, Londres, 1994, no. 1233, reproduit p. 447

Executed on wove paper, laid down on carboard. There is a small 0.5cm line of glue remnant along the lower edge. Apart from three very light small flattened creases running in the upper part of the composition, this work is in very good condition.
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signed with the moogram 'K' and dated '38' (lower left), tempera on black paper. Executed in 1936.

Début 1934 Kandinsky et son épouse s'installent à Neuilly-sur-Seine sur les conseils de Marcel Duchamp. Au cours des dix années qui suivront, Kandinsky exécutera 220 aquarelles, 144 tableaux et des centaines de dessins. Comme le souligne Jean-Louis Prat, "les travaux réalisés dans l'atelier de Neuilly témoignent d'un changement stylistique et thématique. A la sévère construction géométrique caractérisant les œuvres des dernières années du Bauhaus de Dessau, se superpose un vocabulaire de formes stylisées et biomorphes qui semblent empruntées au domaine de la biologie moléculaire" (in Jean-Louis Prat, Kandinsky, Retrospective, 2001, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, p. 196).

Caractéristique de cette période parisienne, à la fois musicale et poétique, Deux côtes se distingue par la fraîcheur de ses couleurs qui se détachent fortement sur le fond noir. Kandinsky parvient ici à conjuguer une pleine liberté plastique avec les principes théoriques qu'il avait énoncé dans Point et ligne sur le plan. Deux côtes s'impose ainsi comme un exemple parfait d'art abstrait que Kandinsky considère des plus difficiles. En 1931, dans le Journal des poètes l'artiste déclare à ce propos : "pour pouvoir s'y adonner, il faut être un bon dessinateur, avoir une grande sensibilité pour la composition et les couleurs et c'est là le plus important, être un authentique poète" (cité in. Jean-Louis Prat, op.cit., p. 206).

 

In early 1934, at the suggestion of Marcel Duchamp, Kandinsky and his wife moved to Neully-sur-Seine.  In the course of the ten years that followed, Kandinsky completed 220 watercolours, 144 paintings and hundreds of drawings.  As Jean-Louis Prat emphasises, "the work he created in the studio at Neuilly bear witness to a change in style and theme.  To the severe geometric construction which characterised the works of his final Bauhaus years, he superimposes a repertoire of stylised and biomorphic shapes that seem to have been borrowed from the realm of molecular biology" (in Jean-Louis Prat, Kandinsky, Retrospective, 2001, Fondation Maeght, p. 196).

Characteristic of this Parisian period, simultaneously musical and poetic, Deux côtes is remarkable for the freshness of its colours which stand out strongly against the black background.  Kandinsky manages here to combine a visual freedom with the theoretical principles that he had laid out in the text Point et ligne sur le plan.  Deux côtes is thus a perfect example of the type of abstract art that Kandinsky considered to be the most difficult.  In 1931, in the Journal des poètes the artist declared on this subject that: "in order to devote oneself fully to it, one must be a good draftsman, have great sensitivity for composition and for colours and, most importantly, be an authentic poet" (cité in. Jean-Louis Prat, op.cit., p. 206).