Author Description

This spectacular five-decade survey of paintings, drawings and prints by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) features over 100 works drawn primarily from the outstanding collections of the Centre Pompidou and the Milwaukee Art Museum. The comprehensive catalogue traces the artist's development from his formative period in Munich and his co-founding of the Blue Rider group and pivotal turn towards abstraction, to his return to Russia during the war, to his prolific work at the Weimar Bauhaus and final years in Paris. New scholarship illuminates murals Kandinsky designed in 1922, contextualizing this project at the transition from his Russian period to his time at the Bauhaus, where he taught mural painting and plunged fully into abstraction. Close examination of the works of art, Kandinsky's rich body of theoretical texts, and their pedagogical significance provides the foundation for essays on the celebrated artist's promotion of abstraction and on the reception of his work in the 21st century; today his artistic and theoretical output continues to inspire students, scholars and artists. Short texts on key works of art and timelines generously enhanced by archival photographs augment the catalogue. Exhibition: Milwaukee Art Museum, USA (2.6.-1.9.2014) / Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, USA (26.9.2014-4.1.2015).