KANDINSKY: RUSSIAN AND BAUHAUS YEARS KANDINSKY: RUSSIAN AND BAUHAUS YEARS 1915-1933 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Library and Archives http://www.archive.org/details/kandinskyrussianOOkand KANDINSKY: RUSSIAN AND BAUHAUS YEARS 1915-1933 The exhibition is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The catalogue is partially underwritten by a grant from the Federal Republic of Germany. Additional support for the exhibition has been contributed by Lufthansa German Airlines. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Kandinsky Society Claude Pompidou, President Dominique Bozo, Vice-President Thomas M. Messer, Vice-President Christian Derouet, Secretary Edouard Balladur Karl Flinker Jean-Claude Groshens Pontus Hulten Jean Maheu Werner Schmalenbach Armin Zweite Hans K. Roethel The Members Guild of The High Museum of Art has sponsored the presentation in Atlanta. Published by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1983 ISBN: 0-89107-044-7 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 83-50760 © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1983 Cover: Kandinsky, In the Black Square. June 1923 (cat. no. 146) The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation HONORARY TRUSTEES IN PERPETUITY Solomon R. Guggenheim, Justin K. Thannhauser, Peggy Guggenheim president Peter O. Lawson-Johnston vice president The Right Honorable Earl Castle Stewart trustees Anne L. Armstrong, Elaine Dannheisser, Michel David-Weill, Joseph W. Donner, Robin Chandler Duke, Robert M. Gardiner, John Hilson, Harold W. McGraw, Jr., Wendy L-J. McNeil, Thomas M. Messer, Frank R. Milliken, Lewis T. Preston, Seymour Slive, Michael F. Wettach, William T. Ylvisaker advisory board Susan Morse Hilles, Morton L. Janklow, Barbara Jonas, Hannelore Schulhof, Bonnie Ward Simon, Stephen C. Swid secretary-treasurer Theodore G. Dunker staff Aili Pontynen, Assistant Secretary; Joy N. Fearon, Assistant Treasurer; Veronica M. O'Connell director Thomas M. Messer The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum deputy director Diane Waldman administrator William M. Jackson staff Vivian Endicott Barnett, Curator; Lisa Dennison, Susan B. Hirschfeld, Assistant Curators; Carol Fuerstein, Editor; Sonja Bay, Librarian; Ward Jackson, Archivist; Susan M. Taylor, Lewis Kachur, Curatorial Assistants; Shara Wasserman, Editorial Assistant Louise Averill Svendsen, Curator Emeritus Cherie A. Summers, Registrar; Jane Rubin, Associate Registrar; Guillermo Alonso, Assistant Registrar; Stephanie Stitt, Registrar's Coordinator; Saul Fuerstein, Preparator; William Smith, David M. Veater, Preparation Assistants; Leni Potoff, Associate Conservator; Elizabeth Estabrook, Conservation Coordinator; Scott A. Wixon, Operations Manager; Tony Moore, Assistant Operations Manager; Takayuki Amano, Head Carpenter; Carmelo Guadagno, Photographer; David M. Heald, Associate Photographer; Holly Fullam, Photography Coordinator Mimi Poser, Officer for Development and Public Affairs; Carolyn Porcelli, Ann Kraft, Development Associates; Richard Pierce, Public Affairs Associate; Elizabeth K. Lawson, Membership Associate; Deborah J. Greenberg, Public Affairs Coordinator; Linda Gering, Development Assistant; Catherine Kleinschmidt, Public Affairs Assistant; Veronica Herman, Membership Assistant Agnes R. Connolly, Auditor; Stefanie Levinson, Sales Manager; Robert Turner, Manager, Cafe and Catering; Maria Masciotti, Assistant Restaurant Manager; Katherine W. Briggs, Information; Christopher O'Rourke, Building Superintendent; Robert S. Flotz, Security Supervisor; Elbio Almiron, Marie Bradley, Assistant Security Supervisors I; John Carroll, Assistant Security Supervisor II Rebecca H. Wright, Jill Snyder, Administrative Assistants life members Eleanor, Countess Castle Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. Werner Dannheisser, William C. Edwards, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Andrew P. Fuller, Mr. and Mrs. Peter O. Lawson-Johnston, Mrs. Samuel I. Rosenman, Mrs. S. H. Scheuer, Mrs. Evelyn Sharp, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen A. Simon, Sidney Singer, Jr., Mrs. Hilde Thannhauser institutional patrons Alcoa Foundation, Atlantic Richfield Foundation, Exxon Corporation, Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Charitable Trust, Mobil Corporation, Philip Morris Incorporated National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, New York State Council on the Arts LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION Edward Albee, New York Kunsthaus Zurich Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich Herbert Bayer Kunstmuseum Basel Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Bayerische Hypotheken- und Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum Basel Wechselbank, Munich Theatermuseum der Universitat Koln Kunstmuseum Bern George Costakis, Athens University Art Museum, University of Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Nathan Cummings, New York California, Berkeley Diisseldorf Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Anneliese Itten, Zurich Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, The Netherlands Lighting Associates, Inc., New York California Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen Mr. and Mrs. Adrien Maeght The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven New York Lucia Moholy Musee d'Art et d'Histoire, Centre Ulrich Pfander, Tegernsee d'Initiation a l'Art Moderne, Geneva The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, Gift of the Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Artcurial, Paris Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation, The Georges Pompidou, Paris Galerie Beyeler, Basel Los Angeles County Museum of Art Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne Professor K.P. Zygas, Los Angeles Design, Providence Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Sidney Janis Gallery, New York Museum Ludwig, Cologne Art Advisory SA, c/o Matthiesen Fine Art Gallery, Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Ltd., London New York The Museum of Modern Art, New York Graphisches Kabinett Kunsthandel Altonaer Museum, Hamburg Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas Wolfgang Werner KG, Bremen City, Missouri The Art Institute of Chicago Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Philadelphia Museum of Art University, Cambridge, Massachusetts The Hilla von Rebay Foundation Fort Worth Art Museum San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice The Santa Barbara Museum of Art The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Schlemmer Family Collection, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, The Netherlands Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Washington, D.C. Kulturbestiz, Nationalgalerie, Berlin 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 9 Preface and Acknowledgements Thomas M. Messer iz Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, 1915-1933 Clark V. Poling 13 Kandinsky in Russia, 1915-1921 36 Kandinsky at the Bauhaus in Weimar, 1922-1925 56 Kandinsky at the Bauhaus in Dessau and Berlin, 1925-193 85 Catalogue 348 Chronology 354 Selected Bibliography 357 Index of Artists in the Catalogue 358 Photographic Credits PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The name of Vasily Kandinsky, as lias been pointed out on previous occa- sions, is inextricably linked to the Guggenheim's history. More than that of any other artist, his work constitutes the core of the collection that Hilla Rebay assembled for her patron and for this institution, which was known as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting when it was created almost fifty years ago under the aegis of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. It is therefore quite natural that Kandinsky should remain a recurrent subject of investigation for us, the more so because his art and his theories continue to have distinctly contemporary implications. Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, 1915-1933 thus becomes the second installment in a three-part exhibition project. It follows Kandinsky in Munich, curated in 1982 by Dr. Peg Weiss, and precedes Kandinsky in Paris, now under study by Christian Derouet. As originally conceived, the three parts of the project call for the participation of different individuals steeped in their respective areas of specialization. Together the scholars so involved should shed new light upon Kandinsky's ultimately unified cre- ative achievement. The current exhibition and this accompanying catalogue were entrusted to Dr. Clark V. Poling, Director, Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, Atlanta, and Associate Professor of Art History, who has de- voted exhaustive research to the Bauhaus period and in particular to Kan- dinsky's theoretical and pedagogical contributions. The three parts of Dr. Poling's essay dealing respectively with Kandinsky in Russia, Weimar and Dessau are close studies of Kandinsky's art and simultaneously offer guide- lines for the presentation of the selected objects. As in the first exhibition, the selection transcends Kandinsky's own oeuvre in order to stress the broader context of his thought and work in relation to that of other artists. In acknowledging the Guggenheim's great satisfaction with what ap- pears to be a perfect implementation of the trilogy's second part, Dr. Poling's contribution must be mentioned first. In doing so, we are aware that he wishes to share credit with colleagues who have made generous contributions. We are grateful to Dr. Hans M. Wingler, Director of the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin, and his associates Dr. Peter Hahn and Dr. Christian Wolsdorff for sharing important materials with Dr. Poling and for making essential loans available for the exhibition. Without the generous support from