Small Worlds I

Published in 1922, shortly after Vasily Kandinsky began teaching at the Bauhaus, this portfolio includes four prints each in etching, woodcut, and lithography. As the artist explains in the portfolio's introduction, each technique was chosen for its unique character: etching is characterized by its precision and appropriateness to the study of lines; woodcut is marked by the interplay of foreground and background, and the richness of textures; lithography combines a range of markings and colors to produce an image that most closely approximates a painting. As evident in their titles, each print represents an autonomous microcosm, a reflection of Kandinsky's view of the world as a self-contained cosmic entity consisting of innumerable independent, hermetic units.