THE GREAT SPIRITUAL

Vasily Kandinsky certainly needs no introduction. More than a century ago, he was one of the first artists to paint abstractly, and his theoretical writings not only explained the meaning of the new art but inspired generations of future artists to see the world and their task in a new way. Nonetheless, opportunities to see large concentrations of Kandinsky’s work don’t come along often, and fortunately, an exhibition has just opened at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in Spain, that enables viewers to experience its power and freshness first-hand. Titled simply “Kandinsky,” it assembles works spanning 1907 to 1943, most of the artist’s career, with an emphasis on his path-breaking abstractions of the period from 1912 through the 1920s. Sponsored by the BBVA Foundation, the exhibition is drawn mainly from the collection of the Guggenheim and was organized by Megan Fontanella, Curator of Modern Art and Provenance at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. It will be on view through May 23, 2021.

The Guggenheim has a long and deep association with Kandinsky that makes it the ideal institution to mount a show such as this one. For one thing, its Kandinsky collection, consisting of over 150 artworks, is the world’s richest. Beyond that, though, it would not be an overstatement to say that the museum owes its very existence to Kandinsky. In 1927, the American businessman and collector Solomon R. Guggenheim was converted to the cause