Kandinsky: the life and work of a Twentieth century master

This week sees the opening of the summer blockbuster show, Kandinsky, at The Art Gallery of NSW; a glorious retrospective of Vasily Kandinsky that only a gallery on this scale (and budget) can really put on.

This absolutely breath-taking exhibition of 47 key paintings, curated with the assistance of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, draws from the Guggenheim’s impressive collection to reveal Kandinsky’s work in depth rarely seen outside of Europe. Kandinsky (very much in the “one name” club like Madonna, Picasso or Nollsey… okay, maybe not the last one) needs little introduction. He is one of the biggest names in art from the last century, and a key player in both defining and elevating the acceptance of abstract art to the masses.

Containing works from his humble beginnings in Munich to the return to his birthplace of Moscow, followed by the interwar years in Germany where he was a painting instructor at the influential Bauhaus Art School, and closing with his final chapter in Paris, this exhibition covers it all.

Although Kandinsky didn’t have quite the theatrics and intrigue of some of the most dramatic (maybe read problematic) male artists of the last century — namely Picasso with his many wives and lovers — Kandinsky certainly lived life to the fullest. He become engaged to his second wife while still married to his first (who also happened to be his cousin).

He then became engaged to his third wife at the age of fifty, while she was still very much in the first bloom of youth at sweet 17. Many visitors to this exhibition may have to play the thoroughly modern game of emotionally separating the artist from the art.

However, it certainly cannot be denied that Vasily Kandinsky (oddly, research for this piece shows that sometimes his first name spelt with a W sometimes with a V) broke new ground in painting during the first decades of the 20th century, incorporating a reference of music, recurring graphic motifs and spirituality in his work, although one can’t help but notice how similar in mood and tone so much of his work is.

To perhaps oversimplify why this is, like most artists of his time, Kandinsky wouldn’t have ever painted with the expectation that each piece would be shown side by side in an exhibition of this type.

Yet undoubtedly, the artist’s brilliance is still clear to see, with crescendo-like key pieces such as “Blue Mountain” and “Composition 8” (it’s fair to say emotive titles for his paintings may not have been his strong point) on show within this collection.

As a summer blockbuster show this exhibition certainly delivers and should be on every Sydney visitor (and locals) list of things to do.

November 4, 2023 – March 10, 2024

Art Gallery of New South Wales (South Building, Lower Level 2), Art Gallery Rd, Sydney

www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au