Vasilty Kandinsky, A Colorful Life: The Collection of the Lenbachhaus, Munich

New York: Dumont / Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1996. Hardcover. VG (Page edges are tanning lightly; includes personalized gift card of a Kandinsky painting from the Guggenheim Museum.). Crimson cloth, red & color pictorial dust jacket, 664 pp., 618 color plates, 105 BW illus.; 7.5 lbs. "Born in Russia, Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was one of the most original and influential artists to emerge in the twentieth century. He is known primarily for his daring use of color in startling non-objective works. [This book] is the most comprehensive and fully illustrated account to date of his early work, from 1900 to 1914, the period in which he made his radical shift to abstraction -- and in so doing altered the very concept of art itself. The works presented here are from the collection of the city museum of Munich, or Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. They were given to the Galerie in 1957 by the artist Gabriele Munter, who was Kandinsky's companion from 1903 to the beginning of World War I." (dj) With essays by Helmut Friedel, Marion Ackermman, and Rudolf H. Wackernagel, and an artist bio by Vivian Endicott Barnett. Lavishly illustrated with vibrant plates. A must for Kandinsky-ites.