Kleine Welten (Small Worlds). Artist: Vasily Kandinsky (French (born Russia), Moscow 1866-1944 Neuilly-sur-Seine). Dimensions: Plate: 9 5/16 × 7 7/8 in. (23.7 × 20 cm)Sheet: 10 1/2 × 11 13/16 in. (26.7 × 30 cm). Series/Portfolio: Kleine Welten. Date: 1922.Kandinsky made the Small Worlds (Kleine Welten) portfolio while teaching at the Bauhaus, the influential German art school founded after World War I. For Kandinsky, abstraction was a spiritual language. In these poetic images, he creates a vibrant interplay of line and form, while capitalizing on the strengths of each printmaking method, in order to evoke different sensations or "worlds." He used three techniques--drypoint, woodcut, and lithography--each of which had distinct, and for Kandinsky, symbolic, properties. Drypoint, which he regarded as "aristocratic," creates sharp, precise lines, while woodcuts produce a richer texture and depth. Contrasting with these traditional techniques is lithography, which the artist viewed as mo