Small Worlds VI from Small Worlds (Kleine Welten)

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Small Worlds VI from Small Worlds (Kleine Welten)

Artist Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866-1944)

Publisher Propyläen Verlag, [Berlin]

Printer Staatliches Bauhaus, Weimar

Date1922-1923

Dimensions10 3/4 x 9 3/16 in.

MediumWoodcut

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineWinthrop H. Perry Fund

Object number

1955.1

Not on View

Label TextWhen World War I began in 1914, Russian citizen Vasily Kandinsky was living in Germany and was forced to return to his homeland. In 1920, after the Russian Revolution and under the new Bolshevik government (for which he worked in the Department of Fine Arts), Kandinsky wrote an essay called “The Great Utopia” in which he claimed that art could break down the borders between nations. Kandinsky returned to Germany in 1921 when he was invited to join the faculty of the recently formed Bauhaus school in Weimar. The Bauhaus was modeled on the cooperative structure of a medieval guild and advocated for the unity of all the arts, including craft. The philosophy of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius harmonized with Kandinsky’s own utopian ideals. Kandinsky produced his portfolio Small Worlds while at the Bauhaus. The 12 prints, including this woodcut, depict microcosms that seem to exist in a space simultaneously physical and metaphysical, terrestrial and cosmic. With forms suggesting a river, boats, buildings, and transportation lines, this image recalls plans produced by the Bolshevik government that re-imagined Russian cities as interconnected, architectural utopias.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Modern Woodcut, May 12-Jul. 23, 2000.

Toledo Museum of Art, European Expressionist and Cubist Works on Paper: 1900-1930, Dec. 2, 2011-Mar. 11, 2012 (University of Toledo Student Exhibition).

Toledo Museum of Art, The Great War: Art on the Frontline, Jul. 25-Oct. 19, 2014.

Toledo Museum of Art, Werner Pfeiffer Selects, Feb. 13-May 10, 2015.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Bauhaus Experiment: Art & Design from the Toledo Museum of Art, August 25, 2020-February 7, 2021.