Nina Kandinsky, Paris
Private Collection
Galerie Thomas, Munich
Galerie di Meo, Paris
Acquired from the above by the previous owner in 2000

Munich, Galerie Thomas, Wassily Kandinsky. Gemalde, Aquarelle, Graphiken, 1991, no. 13
Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein - Westfalen, Kandinsky. Kleine Freuden : Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, 1992, no. 82

Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky, Watercolours, Catalogue Raisonné 1922-1944, vol. II, New York, 1994, no. 571, illustrated p. 24 

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount at the top two corners. There are four small stains along the left side of the upper edge. There is a pinhead-sized spot of staining in the lower left of the image, a similar one in the lower right corner of the work and a faint spot of staining towards the center of the left edge. Overall this work is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present composition was executed circa 1922, the same year that Kandinsky arrived at the Bauhaus. Its rigorously modernist, abstracting style is entirely characteristic of the artist's works from this period and bears the influence💎 of Bauhaus conceptual principles – the emphasis on archღitectural qualities of geometry and structure in particular.

Removed from the constraints of representation, Ohne Titel is highly cerebral – taking its inspiration from the intellectual, not physical world. At the same time, however, this dynamic work is instinctive and emotional. Indeed, the composition suggests Kandinsky's response to music, whereby hearing a sound has produced a visualisation of color and form. The centrifugal movement and jarring shapes are analogous to a musical crescendo, whilst the use of parallel lines recalls the b🌜ars on whi🍌ch music is composed.

Ohne Titel reflects Kandinsky's ideas set forth in his treatise Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911). In this text, the artist explored the interrelationship of spiritওual and physical effect༒s produced by art. The colors, forms and rhythms that one sees in art are the product of the creator's "inner necessity" and the image, therefore, becomes an autonomous representation of the human condition.