October 10, 2021

Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, October 8, 2021 – September 5, 2022

“The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle. Drawing from the Guggenheim’s exceptional collection of works by Kandinsky, the exhibition features approximately eighty paintings, watercolors, and woodcuts, as well as a selection of his illustrated books, spanning the artist’s earlier years in Russia and Germany and through his exile in France at the end of his life. The presentation, installed along the midsection of the museum’s spiral rotunda, reconsiders Kandinsky’s career not as a fixed path from representation to abstraction, but as a circular passage through persistent themes centered around the pursuit of one dominant ideal: the impulse for spiritual expression.” — Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Vasily Kandinsky, Around the Circle, May–August 1940. Oil and enamel on canvas, 38 1/4 x 57 5/8 inches (97.2 x 146.4 cm), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 49.1222
Vasily Kandinsky, Capricious Forms (Formes capricieuses), July 1937. Oil on canvas, 35 x 45 3/16 inches (88.9 x 114.8 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 45.977
Vasily Kandinsky, Dominant Curve (Courbe dominante), April 1936 (detail). Oil on canvas, 50 7/8 × 76 1/2 inches (129.2 × 194.3 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 45.989
Vasily Kandinsky, Yellow Painting (La toile jaune), July 1938. Oil and enamel on canvas, 45 13/16 x 35 inches (116.4 x 88.9 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 45.964
Vasily Kandinsky, Striped (Rayé), November 1934. Oil with sand on canvas, 31 7/8 × 39 3/8 inches (81 × 100 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 46.1022
Vasily Kandinsky, Several Circles (Einige Kreise), January–February 1926. Oil on canvas, 55 3/8 x 55 1/4 inches (140.7 x 140.3 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 41.283
Vasily Kandinsky, Three Sounds (Drei Klänge), August 1926. Oil on canvas, 23 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches (60.3 x 59.7 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 41.282
Vasily Kandinsky, Composition 8 (Komposition 8), July 1923. Oil on canvas, 55 1/4 x 79 inches (140.3 x 200.7 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 37.262
Vasily Kandinsky, Black Lines (Schwarze Linien), December 1913. Oil on canvas, 51 3/8 x 51 5/8 inches (130.5 x 131.1 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 37.241
Vasily Kandinsky, Improvisation 28 (Second Version) (Improvisation 28 [zweite Faßung]), 1912. Oil on canvas, 44 5/16 × 64 inches (112.6 × 162.5 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 37.239
Vasily Kandinsky, Painting with White Border (Bild mit weißem Rand), May 1913. Oil on canvas, 55 1/4 × 78 7/8 inches (140.3 × 200.3 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 37.245
Vasily Kandinsky, Landscape with Factory Chimney (Landschaft mit Fabrikschornstein), 1910. Oil on canvas, 26 × 32 1/4 inches (66 × 81.9 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 41.504
Vasily Kandinsky, Blue Mountain (Der blaue Berg), 1908–09. Oil on canvas, 42 1/4 x 38 7/16 inches (107.3 x 97.6 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 41.505
Kandinsky in front of his painting Dominant Curve (Courbe dominante, 1936), 1936. Photo: Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre Pompidou, Paris. © Lipnitzki/Roger Violett/Getty Images.

Presented concurrently with Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle is a solo exhibition that features the work of contemporary artist Etel Adnan, followed by solo exhibitions of the work of Jennie C. Jones, and Cecilia Vicuña. 

Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle is organized by Megan Fontanella, Curator, Modern Art and Provenance. 

Images courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.