Table of contents (Oglavlenie) from Verses Without Words (Stichi bez slov)
Vasily Kandinsky
French, born Russia. 1866–1944
(1903)
A woodcut table of contents by Vasily Kandinsky for his 1903 portfolio Verses Without Words, in which the artist uses carved black-and-white imagery and hand-lettered Cyrillic to set a poetic sequence of prints.
A sober black field is pierced by a small white vignette of stylized waves and a boat above crisp, hand-carved Cyrillic lettering—the title and twelve entries reading like a distilled, visual page of poetry.
This early graphic work shows Kandinsky blending Symbolist illustration, folk woodcut technique, and typographic design, foreshadowing his shift from representational narrative toward expressing inner rhythms and abstraction.
Medium
Woodcut table of contents from a portfolio of twelve woodcuts, one woodcut title page, one woodcut table of contents, one supplementary woodcut and one woodcut colophon
Dimensions
composition: 6 1/2 x 6 1/8" (16.5 x 15.6 cm); sheet: 6 1/2 x 6 1/8" (16.5 x 15.6 cm); mount: 12 15/16 x 9 13/16" (32.9 x 24.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd
Accession
580.1966.15
Palette
Exhibitions
