All the genius of Vasily Kandinsky on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle (8 October 2021 - 5 September 2022) is the first retrospective exhibition in New York in recent decades on the Russian-born naturalized French artist.
With over 80 works from the Guggenheim collection, the whole artistic story of the man who is considered the founder of abstract painting is told.
The title of the exhibition is inspired by the homonymous work created in 1940: in addition to representing a constant element of artistic production, the figure of the circle also indicates the spiral shape of the Guggenheim in New York. "The exhibition is arranged in reverse chronological order on three ramps - the curator Megan Fontanella explained to ANSA - that is, it starts from the last period, the Parisian one in the 40s, and then moves on to the Bauhaus phase in the 20s and finally the first works made at the beginning of the 20th century when he was in Munich ". It is in this phase that he meets Franz Marc and Paul Klee and begins to mature that style of which he is considered the father, abstractionism. The works oflast Kandinsky instead show different elements of cultural and folkloric practices of Russia and Siberia. A striking example is the work 'Around the Circle'.
The curator also explained that the last chapter of Kandinsky's life and production does not represent an epilogue, but must be seen as a new look at his painting, something in itself that brings out new details. "Kandinsky - he continues - reinvented himself continuously during his life and demonstrated it also in his last phase, when for example he transferred to the canvas the different expressive possibilities of color, line and shape inspired in part by contemporary music".
In addition to Kandinsky, the first two flights of the museum show the works of the Lebanese-born artist Etel Adnan.
'Etel Adnan: Light's New Measure' is the first exhibition within a New York City cultural institution entirely dedicated to her.
It includes paintings, writings and films.
Adnan, 96, is also active in the field of journalism.
