Vasily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 and, at the age of thirty, decided to study painting in Munich. Although he travelled extensively, Kandinsky lived primarily in Germany until 1914 and again from 1922-1933, when he taught at the Bauhaus. He moved to Paris in 1934 and continued to draw and paint until his death in 1944. The two-volume catalogue raisonne of Kandinsky's drawings publishes many drawings for the first time and presents new insights into the artist's creative process. This second volume is devoted to Kandinsky's thirty-eight sketchbooks that have remained intact. Intended as a companion to Volume One, it illustrates and documents all the sketchbook pages with drawings. The sketchbooks belong primarily to the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich and to the Musee National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Many of the drawings, which date from 1889 to 1943, have never been published before. Ms. Barnett contributes a text on Kandinsky's sketchbooks, an aspect of his work that has not been previously studied.
In addition there is an appendix of rare wood sculptures and decorative objects that Kandinsky created as well as an appendix with new information and color reproductions of paintings and watercolours included, but not illustrated, in previous volumes. The two volumes on the drawings complete the series of catalogues raisonnes of Kandinsky's work. Indispensable for scholars, collectors and art lovers, they follow the same format and high standard as the previous volumes on the oil-paintings and the watercolours.