1955 Wassily Kandinsky Lithograph Composition IV

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Original 1955 lithograph after Wassily Kandinsky's 1911 painting "Composition IV", published by Aime Maeght in Derrière Le Miroir. Sheet size … Read more Original 1955 lithograph after Wassily Kandinsky's 1911 painting "Composition IV", published by Aime Maeght in Derrière Le Miroir. Sheet size 15 x 22 inches; center fold as issued, with verso text. Signed in stone. From a complete copy of Derrière Le Miroir in excellent, near-mint condition, with vibrant colors and only slight age-related toning. The colophon is provided as a reference and not included.

Derrière Le Miroir (Behind The Mirror) was a highly influential French art magazine created by the art dealer and gallery owner Aimé Maeght in Paris in 1946. It was closely connected to the Galerie Maeght, which represented many leading artists of modern European art. The publication was designed not only to promote the gallery’s artists but also to serve as an artistic work in its own right. Each issue focused on one or more exhibitions at the gallery and commonly included essays, poems, photographs, reproductions of artworks, and specially commissioned original prints.

One of the most distinctive aspects of Derrière le Miroir was its use of high-quality lithograph prints, which were sometimes printed directly by an artist or produced under their supervision. The publication continued for more than three decades, with its final issue appearing in 1982. Today, Derrière le Miroir is considered an important record of the development of modern and postwar European art, and is valued by collectors for exquisite lithographs by well-known artists.

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), was a Russian-born painter, art theorist, and one of the most important pioneers of abstract art. Before becoming an artist, Kandinsky studied law, economics, and ethnography at the University of Moscow and worked as a law professor. At the age of 30, he decided to leave his academic career and move to Munich, Germany, to study art. Kandinsky became interested in the emotional power of color, music, and shapes. He believed that art did not always need to show recognizable people, objects, or landscapes. Instead, colors and forms could communicate feelings and spiritual ideas directly. His paintings gradually became less realistic and more abstract, making him a major figure in the development of modern art.

In 1911, Kandinsky helped establish Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), an influential group of artists in Munich. He worked alongside artists such as Franz Marc and explored new approaches to color, expression, and abstraction. One of his best-known early abstract works is Composition VII, painted in 1913. After World War I, Kandinsky returned to Germany and became a teacher at the Bauhaus, a famous school of art and design. From 1922 to 1933, he taught students about color, form, and artistic composition. During this period, his paintings increasingly featured geometric shapes, circles, lines, and carefully organized compositions.

When the Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933, Kandinsky moved to France. He spent the rest of his life near Paris, continuing to experiment with abstract forms and unusual combinations of color. Kandinsky's influence on modern art was enormous. His belief that painting could communicate emotions without representing the physical world helped establish abstraction as an important form of artistic expression. His paintings, writings, and theories continue to influence artists around the world. See less