Lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and... stop thinking!
~ Wassily Kandinsky
In 1929, Solomon R. Guggenheim bought his first work from Wassily Kandinsky, with about 150 more to follow over his lifetime. One of these works was the painting Tensions calmées (Calm Tensions) from 1937, a significant and influential abstract work from when Kandisnky was at the height of his career.
Now, this work is headed to auction on 29 June, as part of Sotheby's Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London, after having been part of the same private American collection for fifty years.
Tensions calmées was purchased by the current owners at auction at Sotheby's in 1964, when it was sold by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. A total of fifty important works by Kandinsky from the Guggenheim collection were auctioned off at this 1964 auction.
See also: Bauhaus: A New Guild of Craftsmen
Colour is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano, with its many strings.
~ Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911)
Tensions calmées is one of the most fascinating works of this creative period, when Kandinsky explored the synesthesia of music and painting. He assigned colours to sounds, depicted shapes of music notes and instruments in his compositions and evoking a full symphony of colour and form.
“If there is one pairing which epitomizes the connectedness between art and music, it is the chance encounter between Kandinsky and composer Arnold Schoenberg at the start of the 20th century,” Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, said in a statement. “Tensions calmées is infused with Kandinsky’s own distinctly musical and poetic sensibilities, with rich jewel-like colours that are carefully pitched, the overall effect highly sophisticated.”
Kandinsky's current auction record was set in June 2017 at Sotheby's in London with Bild mit weissen Linien (Painting with White Lines) from 1913, which sold for £33 million.
Tensions calmées will be offered at Sotheby's next month at an estimated price of £18-25 million and, based on its importance and the interest that has already arisen, it certainly has the potential to surpass this and become Kandinsky's most expensive work at auction.
