Back in the City, Back in Museums: Kandinsky

at the Guggenheim

It is hard to beat this:   At the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, sitting with a friend in the third level cafe, looking out the windows and across Central Park to the San Remo building (1930).  Nonetheless, it does get better.  After eating a bit and talking a lot -- much to catch up, we set out to view two wonderful exhibitions:  the grand Kandinsky retrospective, Around the Circle, and a introduction to the paintings of Etel Adnan, Light's New Measure.

Starting at the museum's top, we first made our way through the extraordinary number of works by Kandinsky that are on view.  I am always charmed and intrigued.  Here is his 1910 Landscape with Rolling Hills.  What an invitation this is to all that comes next.  Of course, you want to entire the landscape of this artist's colors, shapes, brushstrokes, rhythms.


 The exhibit had many old favorites up for view, paintings that I have been trying to figure out for a very long time.   Having learned something about the many places in which he painted, the historic events he contended with, and people with whom he worked,  I have come to understand more about Kandinsky's pieces overtime, but I have still a long way to go.  Here are some of those old favorites:

Small Pleasures, 1913

Composition 8, 1923

Several Circles, 1926

​Dominant Curve, 1936

And here are some of my favorite surprises.  They include early paintings and woodcuts.

Pond in the Park, 1906

Church, woodcut, 1907

Pastorale, 1911

Santa Francisca, on glass, 1911

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A Studio Visit in the Country

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Where I Worked When It was Too Cold in 2020/2021