Born in Moscow in 1866, Vasily Kandinsky was one of the great innovators of European abstraction, breaking new ground in painting during the first decades of the 20th-century. In his influential treatise, On the spiritual in art, published in 1911, he wrote about art’s potential to ‘stand alone’, with imagery independent of the natural world. The development of a new subject matter based solely on the artist’s ‘inner necessity’ would occupy him for the rest of his life.
The history of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation is deeply intertwined with the work of Kandinsky, more than any other artist of the 20th-century. Artist, art advisor, and the museum’s first director Hilla Rebay encouraged founder Solomon R. Guggenheim to begin collecting Kandinsky’s work in 1929 and to meet Kandinsky at the Bauhaus Dessau in July 1930. This introduction initiated ongoing acquisitions of Kandinsky’s art, with more than one hundred fifty works ultimately entering the museum’s collection, making it one of the largest collections of the artist’s works in the world.
’The Guggenheim is thrilled by the opportunity to share its rich holdings and curatorial expertise of the great artist Vasily Kandinsky,’ said Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and Jennifer and David Stockman chief curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. ‘We hope this collaborative presentation with the Art Gallery of New South Wales is of exceptional fruition for visitors and beyond.’
Kandinsky is proudly supported by the NSW Government through the Create NSW Blockbusters Funding initiative and by its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW as part of the Sydney International Art Series, bringing the world’s most outstanding exhibitions to Australia, exclusively to Sydney.
 Vasily Kandinsky ‘In the black square’ June 1923, oil on canvas, 97.5 x 93.3 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, by gift, photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Minister for Arts, Music, Night-time Economy, Jobs and Tourism, John Graham said:
‘Despite living and working on the other side of the world, Kandinsky has held a tight grip on the imagination of many Australian art fans. This is their chance to see many of these works for the first time in Australia. I congratulate the Art Gallery for this exhibition.’
The exhibition also includes music programming that explores the crucial relationship Kandinsky had with music. Within the exhibition space there is also a specially commissioned artist project by Desmond Lazaro that draws inspiration from the ideas that influenced Kandinsky and will form an immersive and wondrous experience for all ages.
In conjunction with Kandinsky, an adjunct exhibition of ‘spirit drawings’ created by British medium Georgiana Houghton in the 1860s and 70s will also be displayed at the Art Gallery from 4 November 2023 to 10 March 2024. The exhibition, Invisible Friends, will bring together some of Houghton’s unknown and rarely seen works in Sydney for the first time, and will highlight the significant role spiritualism played for artists in early modernism.
 Vasily Kandinsky ‘Landscape with rain’ January 1913, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 78.4 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Kandinsky opens at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on 4 November 2023 and will be on show until 10 March 2024. Tickets for Kandinsky will be on sale from 6 September, alongside tickets for the Art Gallery’s concurrent 2023-24 Sydney International Art Series exhibition Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? (25 November 2023 – 28 April 2024). A discounted Gallery Pass for both exhibitions will be available, as well as an Art Pass which will provide access to the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s Sydney International Art Series exhibition Tacita Dean.
For more information, please visit the Art Gallery website.
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