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Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was a transformational figure in the history of modern art. Alongside his development of a revolutionary abstract style, Kandinsky demonstrated an ambition to go beyond conventional easel painting. This exhibition charts how the artist’s large paintings with musical and theatrical associations from the Blaue Reiter years developed into large-scale Bauhaus environments. The artist’s 1922 Juryfreie murals will be re-created for the exhibition, enabling visitors to “walk inside” a Kandinsky painting.
Over 80 works comprise this exhibition, including large-scale paintings, rare drawings, and decorative objects. These are drawn from the permanent collection of the Neue Galerie, and augmented by major loans from The Museum of Modern Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Fondation Beyeler, Walker Art Center, and Centre Georges Pompidou. Central to this exhibition is a gallery devoted to a reconstruction of Kandinsky’s murals for the Juryfreie Kunstschau (Jury-Free Art Show) held in Berlin in 1922, a utopian project designed by Kandinsky and executed by his Bauhaus students. Other notable works in the exhibition include the large-scale paintings Composition V (1911), Fugue (1914), and the four wall paintings for Edwin Campbell’s New York apartment (1914).