Derriere Le Miroir
In the postwar year 1946, Aimé and Marguerite Maeght, owners of the Maeght Gallery in Paris, embarked on a publishing venture: in search of a kind of “forum” for the discussion and distribution of original graphic work by “their” artists, the idea of Derriere le miroir (Behind the mirror) was born. Devoted exclusively to contemporary graphic work of artists. Published up to six times a year, Derrière le miroir offered original graphics by such acclaimed contemporary artists.
Wassily Kandinsky (1886 – 1944) is considered to be the originator of abstract art, and believed that art could visually express musical compositions. Kandinsky, who was also an accomplished musician, saw color when he heard music, and associated a color’s tone with musical timbre, hue with pitch, and saturation with the volume of sound. Music influenced his art to such a degree that Kandinsky named his works after musical terms. Originally a lawyer in his native Russia, he was inspired to study art at age 30, after seeing Monet’s “Haystacks.” Kandinsky was gripped by a compulsion to relentlessly create, and believed that if this drive were pure, it would evoke a correspondingly powerful response in viewers of his work.