Kandinsky in Barberini – stars and asterisks

In the beginning was the white oval. At least that’s how the exhibition “Kosmos Kandinsky”, which is currently running in the Potsdam Museum Barberini, tells the Genesis of Geometric Abstraction. Right next to the entrance there is a painting Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) in the first hall, which shows three colorful figures in front of a landscape in an expressionist style – in the upper third of the picture, however, it has no oval that has nothing to do with the motif, but simply conveys empty and silence. “White sound” is the name of this painting, which was created in 1908. It marks a transition from Kandinsky’s Expressionist to his unfavorable work.

In the title, Kandinsky’s understanding of aesthetics is expressed. From then on new sciences such as neurology and psychology influenced, he was convinced that colors, shapes and tones each mend universal properties that would be in an interrelation to each other. A triangle, for example, signals through its pointed activity and movement, the color red passion and dynamics. According to Kandinsky, such assignments should be at least partially rationally explained. In his theoretical main work “About the spiritual in art”, he linked scientific knowledge with spiritual ideas.

The book was published in 1911, in the same year abstract works Kandinsky triggered a scandal in a Munich exhibition. He is therefore generally considered an forefather of abstraction. However, this does not mean-as the Barberini Museum with its interstellar exhibition title could suggest-that since then all artists who deal with geometric abstraction, like planets, revolved around a sun. Rather, there were clashes between different artists as well as between movements at the beginning. Kandinsky’s emphasis on the spiritual of art, for example, encountered resistance among most artists in his homeland of Russia, where he had returned from his study city of Munich in 1914. The constructivists around Kasimir Malewitsch and El Lissitzky were more materialistic, searched for objective foundations for their art production and put them in the service of the revolution.

While revolution was made in Russia in 1917, Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and others founded the De-Stijl movement in the Netherlands. This was based on theosophy and idealism and wanted to reveal a universal truth through reduction of artistic means – only black, white, primary colors and straight lines. Also alienation came here too: in 1925 Mondrian left the group due to different artistic ideas and disagreements.

The Barberini Museum has compiled works from various currents and episodes of geometric abstraction, which have so far not been considered coherent, into an impressive show. The “Geometric Abstraction” label acts as an over -term, which grasps all the unconscious, geometric forms in art. This includes, from constructivism and suprematism in Russia via Bauhaus, de Stijl and the British variant of constructivism to hard edge painting and operating art in the USA, numerous varieties of modern art.

Kandinsky’s emphasis on the spiritual of art, for example, met with resistance among most artists in his home country of Russia.

The Barberini Museum also takes a look at the long period from the 1900s to the 1960s, which together enables a large star contingent: In addition to twelve paintings by Kandinsky, small figures from Malewitsch, grid of Mondrian, colorful interlocking of Frank Stella or the minimal “summer sky II” from Agnes.

But why, if you ask yourself, is a historical overview exhibition named after a single artist? After all, 113 of the 125 works issued do not come from this. The accompanying catalog offers some answers. Kandinsky’s paintings, Barberini director Ortrud Westheider, wrote, wrote three generations of artists from all over the world. In fact, in the catalog texts it is often mentioned what certain artists have to do with Kandinsky – be it about a direct, demonstrable influence or about analogies of both works. For example, Max Bill, former student of Kandinsky at the Bauhaus in Dessau, brought in the Zurich school of the concrete, and the chessboard pattern with which Kandinsky had already experimented with the Bauhaus, formed the basis for many op art works.

This exhibition also conveys that the history of geometric abstraction is one of the political upheavals, displacement and emigration. Stalin put an end to the avant-garde currents in Russia, Hitler in Germany. This meant that first Paris and then London were the cities in which the geometric abstraction was significantly developed before many of their representatives finally went into exile to the USA. Kandinsky himself was also one of the emigrants: at the age of 66, he moved from Germany to Paris in 1933 and, among other things, met with the surrealists dominating there, which was reflected in his painting. In December 1944, Kandinsky died in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris.

»Kosmos Kandinsky. Geometric abstraction in the 20th century «, until May 18, Museum Barberini, Potsdam.