Vasily Kandinsky: From Blaue Reiter to the Bauhaus, 1910-1925

“Vasily Kandinsky: From Blaue Reiter to the Bauhaus, 1910-1925” is an exhibition of masterworks that explores the development of Kandinsky’s art over a crucial period of time: from the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) period into the pure abstraction and total environments of his Bauhaus years. Connecting art, music, and theater, this gathering of loans from private and public collections traces the evolution of Kandinsky’s concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art. Key works by Kandinsky’s artistic peers, including Albert Bloch, Marcel Breuer, Paul Klee, August Macke, Franz Marc, László Moholy-Nagy, Gabriele Münter, and Marianne von Werefkin will also be on display.

Over 80 works comprise this exhibition, including large-scale paintings, rare drawings, and decorative objects. These are drawn from the permanent collection of Neue Galerie New York, and augmented by major loans from the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Fondation Beyeler, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Walker Art Center. 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).

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

“Vasily Kandinsky: From Blaue Reiter to the Bauhaus, 1910-1925” is supported by a generous grant from A. Lange & Söhne.

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Purchase the Exhibition Catalogue
A fully illustrated catalogue, published by Hatje Cantz, accompanies the exhibition.The catalogue includes essays by leading Kandinsky scholars. Separated into three sections, it illustrates how Kandinsky’s fascination for the Wagnerian concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk and the principles of synesthesia developed into large-scale painting within the context of the two highly significant artistic groups Blaue Reiter and Bauhaus, as well as in response to the changing historical circumstances, last but not least, culminating in his large-scale decorative utopian murals and installations.