September 18, 2009
Guggenheim turns 50 with major Kandinsky exhibition
Before there was the Guggenheim Museum, there was Vasily Kandinsky.
And before the Guggenheim opened in its own Frank Lloyd Wright building in 1959, it was known as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, with a generous nod to Kandinsky and the style of abstract art that holds no ties to the observable world.
As part of its 50th Anniversary celebrations, the Guggenheim today opens a major exhibition of Kandinsky’s art, drawing heavily from its own collection as well as the Pompidou in Paris and and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich. This is the final stop in the exhibition’s tour; it’s already been seen by 400,000 in Munich and 700,000 in Paris, the Guggenheim’s director, Richard Armstrong, said during a media preview Thursday.
The exhibition offers 99 Kandinsky paintings in chronological order from bottom to top up the museum’s central spiral. The New York Times calls the display “sensational.”
 A side gallery features Kandinsky’s works on paper while the downstairs gallery holds Kandinsky photographs.
On the walls, the Kandinsky story is spelled out as a search to create art equal to music, which he considered the “purest and most advanced art.” Pivotal events in his career came when he saw Monet’s “Haystack” and determined it was the color and composition that made the impact, not the subject matter; likewise, a performance of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” led him to observe music can elicit a powerful emotional response without a connection to a subject.
The Kandinsky exhibition will remain on view through Jan. 13.
As part of the exhibition, the Guggenheim will offer curator and artist tours of the exhibition, family events and a staging of performances commissioned for the exhibition: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s “Levels of Nothingness” and “The Blue River” as conceived by Sarah Rothenberg.
The museum will also open its doors for free Oct. 21 to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Image credits: Vasily Kandinsky; Colorful Life (Motley Life) (Das bunte Leben), 1907
Tempera on canvas, 130 × 162.5 cm
Bayerische Landesbank, on permanent loan to the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; © 2009 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
Photo: Courtesy Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
Vasily Kandinsky; In the Black Square (Im schwarzen Viereck), June 1923
Oil on canvas, 97.5 × 93 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 37.254; © 2009 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
Both images provided by the Guggenheim.
September 18, 2009 9:48 AM in Museums, Upper East Side
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