![Vasily Kandinsky, "Improvisation 28" (second version) (Improvisation 28 [zweite Fassung]), 1912 Oil on canvas, 43 7/8 x 63 7/8 inches (111.4 x 162.1 cm) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift. 37.239](https://www.annacarnick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/3_Improvisation-28_37.239-300x206.jpg "3_Improvisation 28_37.239")
This month, the Guggenheim NY presents a full-scale retropsective of Vasily Kandinsky’s paintings. “Kandinsky” will include nearly 100 of the artist’s most important canvases, all from 1907 to 1942, and drawing from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau in Munich, along with significant private and public collections.
The retrospective will focus on Kandinsky’s oeuvre and the major events that informed his life: two world wars and the Russian revolutions. Despite these events, or perhaps because of them, Kandinsky’s work did not develop in detachment or isolation. It will also consider his thematic motifs, like the horse and rider, mountainous landscapes, seascapes and apocalyptic imagery . The exhibit was shown at the Centre Pompidou and at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich before coming to the Guggenheim.
Interestingly, Solomon R. Guggenheim himself began collecting Kandinsky’s work in 1929. Guggenheim even visited Kandisnky in Germany in 1930 at the Bauhaus, and purchased over 150 Kandinsky paintings over his lifetime. The upcoming exhibit coincides with the museum’s 50th anniversary celebrations. It runs through January 2010.
For more information, visit the Guggenheim.
Images courtesy of the Guggenheim.