Kandinsky’s Betonte Ecken heads to New York with a 60–80 million dollar estimate
Wassily Kandinsky’s Betonte Ecken will be offered at Christie’s New York on 17 November with a 60–80 million dollar estimate. Painted in 1922–23 during his Bauhaus years, the work once belonged to the Guggenheim collection and has remained with its current owner since 1986. The auction house says its guarantee arrangement points to a record result. The auction has not yet taken place.
Arts··Midday
Betonte Ecken goes to Christie’s in November
Painter Wassily Kandinsky’s Betonte Ecken is scheduled for auction at Christie’s New York on 17 November. The painting, dated 1922–23, has an estimate of 60–80 million dollars and previously belonged to the Guggenheim museum collection.[1], [2]
Christie’s says the guarantee arrangement ensures a record-level result. Kandinsky’s standing auction record is 44.8 million dollars, paid in London in 2023 for Murnau mit Kirche II. The November sale has yet to take place.[1]
The painting passed through the Guggenheim collection
The work’s ownership history runs through a Berlin auction in 1926, the Schwarz collection and Galerie Nierendorf, an art gallery. Hilla Rebay probably acquired it in 1929 before it passed to Solomon Guggenheim. The painting remained in the museum collection until 1964. A Sotheby’s London sale took it to art dealer Stephen Hahn; Sandra and David Bakalar subsequently owned it. Its current, unnamed owner bought it at Sotheby’s New York in 1986.[1]
Kandinsky painted it during his Bauhaus years
Kandinsky painted Betonte Ecken while teaching at the Bauhaus, the German art and design school in Weimar. He settled in the city in 1922, after publishing On the Spiritual in Art in 1911 and helping establish the Der Blaue Reiter artists’ group. His first New York solo exhibition followed at Société Anonyme in 1923. After the Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933, he moved to France, where he died in December 1944.[1]
