Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Outstanding Retrospective Takes Kandinsky Out of the Abstract -- Art Exhibition Review

Art Exhibit Review

Kandinsky: a Retrospective
Milwaukee Art Museum
Thru September 1
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A great art exhibition should substantially add to your appreciation of a given artist--or genre--not merely by displaying a large number of pleasing paintings, but in providing biographical and contextual information that furthers your knowledge and understanding.

By that measure, Kandinsky: A Retrospective, at the Milwaukee Art Museum is fantastic.

Aided, perhaps, by the fact that--while a longtime fan of Wassily Kandinsky's art--I was rather ignorant about his life upon entering the exhibit.

Although I might have learned much the same things through a perusal of Wikipedia and WikiArt, not only hadn't I explored his biography, but the Milwaukee Art Museum--with an exhibit organized by the Centre Pompidou in Paris and abetted by some of the MAM's own holdings--showcased and explained Kandinsky in a way that was truly enlightening.

Even before the addition of the Santiago Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion--featuring a beautiful brise soleil--opened in 2001 and made the MAM the finest architectural work of art among American art museums following in the footsteps of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the main Milwaukee gallery had an impressive collection and was well-worth visiting.

But perhaps in conjunction with increased attendance that has accompanied the exquisite new lakefront structure--the permanent collection remains housed in the adjoining Milwaukee County War Memorial building, designed in 1957 by another famed architect, Eero Saarinen--the MAM has seemingly upped its game in recent years, presenting exhibitions that should be the envy of many more prestigious museums in much larger cities.

These include an Impressionism exhibit that opened my eyes to some terrific, lesser-known Impressionists (as I wrote about here), a fine exhibit about Andy Warhol's last decade that also educated me about Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the displaying of a single Raphael masterpiece that was worth not only a thousand words, but outranked many a more extensive showcase of lesser geniuses.

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944) Fragment I for Composition VII
(Center), 1913 Oil on canvas 34 15/16 × 39 7/16 in. (88.74 × 100.17 cm)
Gift of Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley M1958.12 Photographer credit: Larry Sanders
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
At least in terms of his art, I considered myself far from a Kandinsky neophyte, though far from an expert.

I have seen many of his paintings over the years in various museums, including fairly recently at the Centre Pompidou, which--as the exhibition notes--has one of the world's largest Kandinsky holdings, comprised primarily of works the artist kept for himself, which were donated by his wife Nina after his death.

And as I mentioned in this travel guide, I very much valued a Detroit Institute of Arts' display that deciphered an abstract painting by Kandinsky (among several fine explanatory notes throughout that stellar museum).

But in terms of knowing about Wassily (pronounced Vassily) Kandinsky, who lived from 1866-1944, my wherewithal was essentially: a 20th century Russian abstract painter, who I liked for the colorful commotion of his paintings.

But take, for example, what the exhibition taught me simply about Fragment I for Composition VII (Center), which is owned by the Milwaukee Art Museum and for which an accompanying video explained its veiled symbols. (I've included an image nearby, but you can see this and works beyond those posted here in the Kandinsky exhibition's fine website.)

First of all, though some symbols are more recognizable, or guessable, than others, Kandinsky's paintings--to him--were never random, but always conveyed an inner meaning.

If you know, as I only now do, that from 1896 to 1914 Kandinsky studied and painted largely in Munich, returning to Russia as Europe headed to war, you might see how the crosshatches in the 1913 painting could represent barbed wire, with images of (or symbolizing) cannons, guns, a boat, a serpent also potentially apparent amidst a general sense of unrest.

That said, while appreciating the explanation of this and other paintings in the exhibition, I'm just as happy--if not more so--appreciating Kandinsky's work simply on an aesthetic level. 

I like knowing that there is much more going on than random scribbles and shapes, but it is enough for me to know that he was expressing an inner meaning than for me to know exactly what he was trying to say.

What makes abstract painting fun for me is the exciting sense of disarray, vibrantly expressed, even if not nearly as randomly as it looks.

Considerably more compelling for me to know is that Kandinsky didn't just wake up one day and decide to make haphazard paintings.

In looking at his emblematic works, one may not guess that the Moscow-born Kandinsky studied law, economics and statistics as an undergrad, then became a lawyer and Associate Professor of Law.

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Old Town II (Alte Stadt II), 1902
Oil on canvas 20 1/2 × 30 7/8 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national
d'art moderne, Paris Bequest of Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1981 AM 81-65-16
© Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Service de la documentation
photographique du MNAM /Dist.RMN-GP
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
It was only as he was almost 30 that--inspired by seeing one of Monet's Haystacks paintings and viewing/hearing Wagner's Lohengrin opera--that he decided to devote his life to more artistic pursuits.

In 1896, Kandinsky moved to Munich, where he would study art, teach it, form multiple artist groups, participate in exhibitions and befriend long-time companion Gabriele Münter--with Franz Marc, Alexej Jawlensky and Robert Delaunay also painters in his circles, whether within Phalanx, the New Artists Association of Munich or the Blue Rider group.

He also traveled extensively and spent a year in Paris.

The healthy selection of early works by Kandinsky in the initial galleries of the exhibition reiterated--I knew this somewhat about him, but also of artists like Miro, Mondrian and Rothko--that great artists now seen as abstractionists or minimalists reached their destinations only after mastering the ability to paint landscapes, still lifes, portraits and much more realistic or figural subjects. Their famed works were interpretive reductions, not facile gimmicks. (See this less-than-admiring article I wrote about a noted contemporary artist and his like; even more dismaying is my understanding that many "artists" today learn on a computer, not with a paintbrush.)

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Song (Lied), 1906 Tempera on
cardboard 19 5/16 × 26 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national
d’art moderne, Paris Bequest of Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1981 AM 81-65-87
© Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Georges Meguerditchian /
Dist.RMN-GP © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
In this vein, one of my favorite pieces in the entire exhibition is a 1906 tempura-on-cardboard painting called Song, that I would never have guessed was by Wassily Kandinsky.

(For the second post in a row, I can say I was somewhat reminded of Maurice Prendergast, such as this work.)

He also had dabbled in neo-Impressionism--there is an enlightening wall devoted to such pieces--and didn't really approach abstraction until his mid-40s, when he created the Blue Rider group with Franz Marc.

"We both liked blue, Marc liked horses, I liked riders. Thus the name came by itself," reads a Kandinsky quote in the exhibit's enlightening text. 

While this retrospective primarily consists of paintings from a single repository--the Centre Pompidou--with just a smattering of Kandinsky works held elsewhere, rather than rue great examples that weren't included, I felt the exhibition paints a rather thorough picture of the artist and his art.  

Along with its own Kandinsky painting, the Milwaukee Art Museum well appends what the Pompidou put together by including works by Münter and Jawlensky from its collection, and Franz Marc's The Large Blue Horses from 1911--on loan from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and viewable on WikiArt.org--is a cornerstone in showing a key stimulus for Kandinsky's move into abstract painting.

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Impression V (Park), 1911
Oil on canvas 41 3/4 × 62 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée
national d'art moderne, Paris Gift of Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1976 AM
1976-851 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Bertrand Prévost /
Dist.RMN-GP © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Like that Marc work, Kandinsky's Impression V (Park) from the same year features an equine presence, if you look closely.

Per the accompanying explanation, in his 1911 treatise, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky referred to three major types of paintings: Impressions, Improvisations and Compositions--with Impressions (such as in this painting) coming from direct observations.

Quoting the placard's text:

"The figure of the horse and rider in motion is highly schematic as Kandinsky had moved toward merging the inner world with an inner expression of veiled symbols."

The exhibit also details Kandinsky's return to Russia from 1914-1921--between World War I and the Russian Revolution, a time of great upheaval--as being a relatively dour period, with the artist feeling at odds with avant-garde Russian artists about the purpose of painting.

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Painting with a Red Mark
(Bild mit rotem Fleck), 1914 Oil on canvas 51 3/16 × 51 3/16 in.
Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris Gift of
Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1976 AM 1976-853 © Centre Pompidou,
MNAM-CCI/ Adam Rzepka / Dist.RMN-GP
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
During this time in Russia, he ended his relationship with Gabriele Münter and married a woman named Nina, who would remain his companion until his death.

In 1921, Kandinsky was invited to visit Germany by Walter Gropius, the director of the Bauhaus, which led to an 11-years-tenure as a teacher at the famed art school.

One of the true highlights of the exhibition is a gallery of full-wall murals Kandinsky had created shortly after he began teaching at the Bauhaus.

Appointed as the Master of the Wall Painting Workshop, he was commissioned to produce murals for the Juryfreie Kunstschau (nonjuried art exhibition in Berlin), and embraced it as an opportunity for viewers to "stroll within the picture."

Although the murals were subsequently destroyed, his wife Nina supervised their recreation for display in the lobby of the Centre Pompidou in 1977; the Milwaukee retrospective is the first time they have been exhibited in the United States.

Also fun and enlightening are five gouache studies for the murals. In fact, I was surprised by the inclusion of several studies throughout the show, further demonstrating that Kandinsky wasn't being nonchalantly  fanciful, but approached each canvas with a clear sense of purpose.

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Panel design for the “Juryfreie” exhibition, Wall A
(Entwurf für das Wandbild in der Juryfreien Kunstschau: Wand A), 1922 Gouache on black paper
13 11/16 × 23 5/8 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris Gift of
Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1976 AM 1976-889 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/
Georges Meguerditchian / Dist.RMN-GP © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Although Kandinsky remained part of the Bauhaus faculty (which also included Paul Klee and Lyonel Feininger)   through moves from Weimar to Dessau to Berlin, the school was shuttered in 1933 due to Nazi oppression.

He would then move to Paris, where he would live until his death in 1944.

Notable about his time at the Bauhaus was the development of a more geometric universe in his paintings, with definable shapes--circles, squares, rectangles, checkerboards--becoming more prevalent. 

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Black Grid (Schwarzer Raster), 1922
Oil on canvas 37 13/16 × 41 3/4 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national
d’art moderne, Paris Bequest of Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1981 AM 81-65-44
© Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Service de la documentation
photographique du MNAM / Dist.RMN-GP
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
In Paris, where he and Nina lived in the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine as it was recommended by Marcel Duchamp, Kandinsky--who had several paintings seized by the Nazis and included in Hitler's Degenerate Art Exhibition, whose goal was to denigrate avant-garde European art--remarked:

"Paris, with its marvelous light (soft and intense) has softened my palette; there are other colors, entirely new forms and some that I had not used for years."

I also found it interesting to note that after Kandinsky's death in December 1944, the Guggenheim Museum of New York--which opened in 1939 though I never before thought about it pre-existing its Frank Lloyd Wright building from 20 years later--organized a exhibition of his work that traveled to Milwaukee and was displayed at what would become the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Relevant to the Guggenheim, I'd assume many people didn't know of the MAM--or explore it--until Calatrava worked his magic.

And until I went to the museum--in the midst of a visit to Milwaukee's Summerfest at which I would primarily see New Order--I was largely ignorant of Wassily Kandinsky beyond an affinity for his dynamic painting style.

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) On White II (Auf Weiss II), 1923
Oil on canvas 41 5/16 × 38 9/16 in. Centre Georges Pompidou,
Musée national d'art moderne, Paris Gift of Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1976
AM 1976-855 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Georges Meguerditchian /
Dist.RMN-GP © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Though I remember having seen a number of the exhibit's prime pieces at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, in terms of focusing specifically on a large swath of art--and the life--of this important painter, a jaunt up to Milwaukee was even better.

I now know what Kandinsky looked like, that he was initially a lawyer and eminent teacher and that although he is almost always referenced as a Russian painter (and a pioneering art theorist), his artistic period was predominantly begun and spent in Germany and Paris.

And more than before, I have a clue as to what some his art means.

But even if you just want to look at the pictures--and again, I relish them more in the abstract, uniquely shaped by each viewer's perception--this first-rate Kandinsky retrospective should truly open your eyes.

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Entry to the Milwaukee Art Museum is normally $17, but after having only learned of the Kandinsky exhibit a few days before I went--thanks to a poster in an Evanston hot dog stand (Wiener and Still Champion)--I lucked into a Target Free Thursday and didn't have to pay a dime. On the first Thursday of each month, Target Corporation covers the entry fee for all visitors, even to the special exhibitions. The next of these, and last before the Kandinsky exhibit closes on Sept. 1 is on Thursday, August 7. 

Now for a few more Kandinsky paintings that were included: 
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Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Yellow-Red-Blue (Gelb-Rot-Blau), 1925 Oil on canvas 50 3/8 × 79 5/16 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris Gift of Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1976 AM 1976-856 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Philippe Migeat / Dist.RMN-GP © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Achtyrka—A Neighboring Dacha on the Pond (Achtyrka—Eine Nachbar-Datscha am Teich), 1917 Oil on canvas board 8 1/4 × 11 5/16 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris Bequest of Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1981 AM 81-65-39 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Service de la documentation photographique du MNAM / Dist.RMN-GP © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Improvisation III, 1909 Oil on canvas 37 x 51 3/16 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris Gift of Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1976 AM 1976-850 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Adam Rzepka / Dist.RMN-GP © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) Composition IX, 1936 Oil on canvas 44 11/16 × 76 3/4 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris Attribution by and Purchase of the State, 1939 JP 890 BIS P © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ / Dist.RMN-GP © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 – 1944) In Grey (Im Grau), 1919 Oil on canvas 50 13/16 × 69 5/16 in. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris Bequest of Mrs. Nina Kandinsky in 1981 AM 81-65-43 © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Adam Rzepka / Dist.RMN-GP © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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