ExhibitionNovember 25, 2020
Kandinsky at The Guggenheim Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is presenting Kandinsky, an essential figure in
abstraction and one of the leading exponents of 20th-century art. The exhibition features an important selection of paintings and works on paper by Vasily Kandinsky (b.1866, Moscow; d. 1944 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), who became an artist late, as he began to study painting in Munich in 1896, when he was already 30 years old. The different phases in his life—Kandinsky lived in Russia, Germany, and France, as well as through the two World Wars—and especially his contact with the different avant-garde movements in the countries where he lived, had a clear influence on his work.
The exhibition traces the aesthetic evolution of a pioneer of abstraction, a renowned aesthetic theorist, and one of the foremost artistic innovators of the early twentieth century. In his endeavor to free painting from its ties to the natural world, Kandinsky discovered a new subject matter based solely on the artist’s “inner necessity” that would remain his lifelong concern.
Through the chronological organization of the exhibition, the public can immerse
themselves in Kandinsky’s oeuvre and witness how his painting evolved, from his early
images, which contain an iconography with recognizable realism in the objects and
scenes, to his wholehearted incursions into an abstraction which reflects his aspiration to
capture the essential.
This show was curated by Megan Fontanella and sponsored by Fundación BBVA. Kandinsky will be open to the public until May 23, 2021. For more information visit: https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/exposiciones/kandinsky
abstraction and one of the leading exponents of 20th-century art. The exhibition features an important selection of paintings and works on paper by Vasily Kandinsky (b.1866, Moscow; d. 1944 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), who became an artist late, as he began to study painting in Munich in 1896, when he was already 30 years old. The different phases in his life—Kandinsky lived in Russia, Germany, and France, as well as through the two World Wars—and especially his contact with the different avant-garde movements in the countries where he lived, had a clear influence on his work.
The exhibition traces the aesthetic evolution of a pioneer of abstraction, a renowned aesthetic theorist, and one of the foremost artistic innovators of the early twentieth century. In his endeavor to free painting from its ties to the natural world, Kandinsky discovered a new subject matter based solely on the artist’s “inner necessity” that would remain his lifelong concern.
Through the chronological organization of the exhibition, the public can immerse
themselves in Kandinsky’s oeuvre and witness how his painting evolved, from his early
images, which contain an iconography with recognizable realism in the objects and
scenes, to his wholehearted incursions into an abstraction which reflects his aspiration to
capture the essential.
This show was curated by Megan Fontanella and sponsored by Fundación BBVA. Kandinsky will be open to the public until May 23, 2021. For more information visit: https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/exposiciones/kandinsky
