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Kandinsky show opens at the Guggenheim Museum
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Kandinsky's "Black Lines" (1913). Courtesy Guggenheim Museum
A gorgeous retrospective of the career of visionary Russian painter Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) opens at the Guggenheim Museum today. Close to 100 of the artist’s most important paintings—ranging from 1902 to 1942—are hung along the Guggenheim’s famous spiral ramp. Viewers can begin at the bottom, with “Colorful Life” (1907), Kandinsky’s romanticized scene of Russian life, and climb all the way to the top, where his whimsical, semi-surreal “Sky Blue” (1940), awaits. Or they can take the elevator up and walk down, working backwards through the artist’s eventful artistic life.
Designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright with Kandinsky’s paintings in mind, the Guggenheim Museum has one of the finest collections in the world of the artist’s work. Partnering with the two other major Kandinsky collections--the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich—the Guggenheim is celebrating it’s own 50th anniversary with this show.
Kandinsky was one of the fathers of abstract art. Although he never visited the United States, his paintings were purchased by Solomon R. Guggenheim as early as 1929 and were featured in Guggenheim’s Museum of Non-Objective Painting--the forerunner of today’s Guggenheim Museum--when it opened in 1939.
During his lifetime, Kandinsky lived and worked in Moscow, Munich, Weimar, Berlin, and Paris, among other European cities. He was influenced by most of the leading artistic movements of his day, and those movements were in turn heavily influenced by him.
Click here for my review of the Guggenheim’s Kandinsky show
The Kandinsky Retrospective – September 18 to January 13, 2010
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street, New York City
General Information: 212 423 3500
For other stories about art click on the links below:
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