September 18, 2009- January 10, 2010 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Kandinsky at the Guggenheim is the most comprehensive exhibit of the paintings of the founder of Abstraction ever put together. Drawing from the three museums with the richest store of Kandinsky paintings; the Lenbachhaus in Munich, the Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Guggenheim in New York, the 95 paintings assembled represent the most important large format works of Kandinsky's career. This is a once and a life time opportunity to see, under one roof, the full development of Kandinsky as both the pioneer and main theorist of abstraction.In Kandinsky at the Guggenheim, paintings from the Lenbachhaus Museum provide important examples from his Blue Rider period (1908-1914). Kandinsky paintings from the Blue Rider period consist of large expressive areas of color meant to be experienced and evaluated free of the form and line superimposed over them. Kandinsky came to view painting during this period as a short cut to a spiritual reality. Removing descriptive detail and reducing recognizable elements to calligraphic notations, Kandinsky's large masses of vibrant color are meant to stimulate emotions in the viewer.
Kandinsky at the Guggenheim also exhibits paintings from the Georges Pompidou covering the period Kandinsky painted in Russia and with Bauhaus in Germany, 1917-1933. In Moscow, Kandinsky concentrated on artistic teaching and the development of his theory of color and form analysis and he further refined these theories adding elements of form psychology while at Bauhaus. Geometrical shapes and elements took on a greater role in Kandinsky's theory and teachings and this is also reflected in his art during this particularly prolific period. Circles, curves, angles, straight lines and semi circles plus masses of color only provide the viewer a first pathway into a Kandinsky painting. Beyond the color and the forms, there are the positions and interrelations of these shapes and colors that create the harmony and the whole.
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