Line Spot

Kandinsky painted this at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1927, where he taught analytical drawing. Within a few years it was hanging in New York, in the apartment of George Gershwin. The composer of Rhapsody in Blue had put together one of the sharpest modern collections in America, around 150 works bought with advice from his cousin, the painter Henry Botkin. When that collection went on show at the Arts Club of Chicago in 1933, this picture caused a stir, and the reviewers could not agree on what they were looking at. One saw something in the manner of American Indian design. Another reported brown triangles on a yellow ground with dots and dashes and whatnot. The same year, the Bauhaus was shut down under Nazi pressure. The painting reached the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1956, a gift from the Gershwin family.