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The
Mazzotta Foundation in Milan has organised on its Brera premises the
exhibition “Vassily Kandinsky. Tradition and Abstraction in Russia:
1896-1921”, open until 10 June 2001.
Kandinsky
is an emblematic figure in twentieth century avant-garde art, and drawing
attention to his character and to his works is a bit like offering a
historic interpretation of the art of the so-called “secolo breve” [the
brief century], as well as introducing the awareness that, with Kandinsky,
art as a whole has left figuration for abstraction, with signs, forms
and symbols which will become an expression of the so-called “Spirituality
in art”.
The
exhibition comprises 90 works, including paintings on canvas, watercolours
and engravings, coming from numerous and important Eastern museums,
as well as from the Peggy Gugghenheim Collection. The itinerary starts
with the year 1896, when our artist (who was born in Odessa in 1896,
had graduated in law and married his cousin Anja Semiakina), at the
age of thirty left the university career and moved to Munich, to devote
himself exclusively to art.
The
show covers a period ending with the year 1921, the year in which from
Moscow (where he had returned in 1914) he left again for Germany, where
the climate and school of the so-called Bauhaus movement influenced
his artistic research by leading him towards geometric forms.
The
first reading offered by the exhibition relates to Kandinsky’s stylistic
evolution, from the early attempts, which are still of a naturalistic
nature, up to the attainment of abstraction.
The
second interpretation is based on the Russian artistic environment in
which Kandinsky’s work is set, with works by symbolists (Borissov-Mussatov),
fauvists (Mackov) and abstractionists (Malevic and Rodcenko); among
these works, we should remember “The House in the Mountains”, by Jawlensky
(1912) and “The Peacock under the Shining Sun”, by Goncharova (1911).
The
historical background also includes a series of seventeenth century
icons from the great Russian tradition, since they represented a crucial
reference point for all avant-garde artists. In Kandinsky’s art, tradition
and abstraction play an interchanging role (having both made there appearance
in his works around 1917-18), with themes such as St. George or Elijah’s
ascent on the chariot of fire, but also landscapes, primitive atmospheres,
national folklore.
Amongst
his many works, stands out “Composition VII”, an undisputed masterpiece
of abstract expressionism, the most important and mysterious work by
Kandinsky, which was then going through his most creative phase. He
painted it in1913, together with other major works, such as “Composition
VI” and “Painting with White Border”. “Composition VII” can be interpreted
as some sort of Last Judgement, the final goal of expressionist creations,
summing up the great battles in favour of abstract art. Out of the seven
Compositions created between 1910 and 1914, only four are left, since
the first three were lost during World War II. For “Composition VII”
we have about thirty excellent preparatory studies, ranging from a rough
sketch to a great oil study. During the early years spent in Russia,
we find in this artist fairy-tale themes expressed in a figurative style,
whilst contemporary Russian avant-garde with suprematists and constructivists
was moving towards non-objective art. Slowly he started developing towards
a language made of abstract forms.
Examples
of this evolution are, besides “Composition VII” (1913), “Improvisation
VII” (1910), “Cupolas” (1909), “Arabs” (1911), “Orient” (1913) and a
whole range of works on paper, such as “Poems without Words” dating
back to 1903.
So
we could refer to Kandinsky as the Blue Knight, to allude to the movement
“Der Blaue Reiter”, to the fairy-tale structure of his painting, to
the music which permeates his work, to the impending black spot, to
the language of forms and colours, to spirituality in art. With Kandinsky,
the legend of modern art begins.
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