KANDINSKY IN PARIS KANDINSKY IN PARIS: 1934-1944 KANDINSKY IN PARIS 1934-1944 This exhibition and catalogue are supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional funding for the exhibition has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. 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 t Hans K. Roethel Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944. Kandinsky in Paris, 1934-1944. Exhibition catalogue. Bibliography: p. 158. Includes index. 1. Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944—Exhibitions. 1. Concrete art—France—Paris—Exhibitions. 3. Art, Abstract— France—Paris—Exhibitions. I. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. II. Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. III. Title. N6999.K33A4 1985 76o'.09i'4 84-27617 ISBN: 0-89107-049-8 Published by The Solomon K. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1985 ® The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1985 (over: kandinsky, Sky Hlnc. March 1940 (cat. no. 116) The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation HONORARY TRUSTE] S IN PERPETUITY Solomon R. Guggenheim, Justin K. Thannhauser, Peggy Guggenheim president Peter Lawson-Johnston vice president The Right Honorable Earl Castle Stewart trustees Carlo De Benedetti, Elaine Dannheisser, Michel David-Weill, Joseph W. Donner, Rohm Chandler Duke, Robert M. Gardiner, John S. Hilson. Harold W. McGraw, Jr., Wendy L-J. McNeil, Thomas M. Messer, Bonnie Ward Simon. Seymour Slive, Stephen C. Swid, Michael F. Wettach, William T. Ylvisaker advisory board Barrie M. Damson, Susan Morse Hilles, Morton L. Janklow, Barbara Jonas, Denise Saul, Hannelore Schulhof secretary-treasurer Theodore G. Dunker staff Aili Pontynen, Assistant Secretary; Joy N. Fearon. Assistant Treasurer director Thomas M. Messer 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; Diana Murphy, Editorial Coordinator; Susan Hapgood, Nancy E. Spector, Curatorial Assistants 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; Pamela M. Cartmel, Technical Services Coordinator; Leni Potoff, Associate Conservator; Gillian McMillan, Assistant Conservator; Elizabeth Estabrook, Conservation Coordinator; Scott A. Wixon, Operations Manager; Tony Moore, Assistant Operations Manager; Takayuki Amano, Head Carpenter; David M. Heald, Pho- tographer; Myles Aronowitz, Assistant 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, Special Events Coordinator; Ann D. Garrison. Development Coordinator; Veronica Herman, Membership Assistant; Amy Sephora Pater, Public Affairs Assistant; Peter Meitzler, Computer Assistant Agnes R. Connolly, Auditor; Judy A. Ornstein, Accounting Assistant; Stefanie Levinson, Sales Manager; Robert Turner, Manager, Cafe and Catering; Maria Masciotti, Assistant Cafe Manager; Fred Lee, Assistant Cafe Manager-Kitchen Preparation; Katherine W. Briggs, Information; Christopher O'Rourke, Building Superintendent; Robert S. Flotz, Security Supervisor; Elbio Almiron, Marie Bradley, Assistant Security Supervisors II; John Carroll, Assistant Security Supervisor I Rebecca H. Wright, Jill Snyder, Administrative Assistants; Faith R. Schornick, Assistant to the Administrator life members Jean K. Benjamin, Mr. and Mrs. B. Gerald Cantor, Eleanor, Countess Castle Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. Barrie M. Damson, Mr. and Mrs. Werner Dannheisser, William C. Edwards, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Andrew P. Fuller, Agnes Gund, Susan Morse Hilles, Mr. and Mrs. Morton L. Janklow, Mr. and Mrs. Donald L. Jonas, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Lawson-Johnston, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Liberman, Elizabeth Hastings Peterfreund. Mrs. Samuel I. Rosenman, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew M. Saul, Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph B. Schulhof, Mrs. Evelyn Sharp, Mrs. Leo Simon, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen A. Simon, Sidney Singer, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. Swid, Mrs. Hilde Thannhauser, Mr. and Mrs. Stephan S. Weisglass, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Zierler institutional patrons Alcoa Foundation, Atlantic Richfield Foundation. Exxon Corporation, Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Charitable Trust, Knoll International, 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 Anni Albers and the Josef Albers The Baltimore Museum of Art Galerie Beyeler, Basel Foundation Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris Fondation Arp, Clamart Esbjerg Kunstforening, Esbjerg, Denmark Davlyn Gallery, New York Archiv Baumeister, Stuttgart Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice Galerie Rosengart, Lucerne Max Bill, Zurich Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New The Blue Rider Research Trust York The Colin Collection, New York Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, The Netherlands Collection Domela Kunstmuseum Basel Lillian H. Florsheim Foundation for Fine Arts Kunstmuseum Bern Mark Goodson, New York Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Diisseldorf Latner Family Collection Gabriele Miinter-und Johannes Eichner- Mr. and Mrs. Adrien Maeght Stiftung, Stadtische Galerie im Lenbach- Alberto and Susi Magnelli haus, Munich Megatrends, Limited Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris Marina Picasso Musee National Fernand Leger, Biot The Hilla von Rebay Foundation Archive Musee National du Louvre, Paris Lawrence D. Saidenberg, New York Musee de Vallauris, France Arnold A. Saltzman, New York Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Madame Schimek-Reichel, Paris Rotterdam Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Switzerland The Museum of Modern Art, Seibu Mr. and Mrs. Burton Tremaine, Meriden, Takanawa Connecticut Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna Association-Fondation Christian et Yvonne Zervos, Vezelay Philadelphia Museum of Art The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen American Literature, The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Librar), Yale University TABLE OF CONTENTS 9 Preface and Acknowledgements Thomas M. Messer 11 Kandinsky in Paris: 1934-1944 Christian Derouet 61 Kandinsky and Science: The Introduction of Biological Images in the Paris Period Vivian Endicott Barnett S9 Catalogue 252 Chronology 2.58 Selected Bibliography 264 Index of Artists in the Catalogue 265 Photographic Credits Christian Derouefs essay was translated by Eleanor Levieux PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Kandinsky in Paris completes a tripartite project that began in 1982 with Kandinsky in Munich and continued in 1983 with Kandinsky: Russian and Banbaus Years. Together, the three exhibitions and their accompanying catalogues constitute what is certainly the most extensive investigation in exhibition form of Kandinsky's lifework and beyond this probably one of the most far-reaching probes ever undertaken with respect to a twentieth- century master. Few artists in modern times could sustain so relentless an analysis, and the method applied here does not, therefore, lend itself to easy reapplication. For, in addition to the great quantity and quality of Kandin- sky's oeuvre and the importance of his contacts with contemporaries, there is in his case the somewhat unusual circumstance of a life divided into sep- arate phases, each of which is linked to an artistic style that has its own clearly recognizable attributes. Thus, the Munich period culminates in the first abstract expressionist paintings which differ visibly from the abstract constructivist works fully developed by Kandinsky at the Bauhaus—a development that would remain inexplicable but for the stylistic transition that took place while Kandinsky weathered the war and postwar years in pre- and post-Revolutionary Russia. The break between his work of Weimar and Dessau and that of his last years in Paris, which is the subject of the current effort, if less marked, is neverthe- less easily perceived by the attentive viewer. Like the earlier transition, it is the result of complex internal and external factors that are at least partially subject to analysis and demonstration. The Guggenheim, largely for historical reasons noted in the catalogues of the previous installments of this project, assumes an inimitable position among American museums with respect to Kandinsky. The strength of its own collection is paralleled only by those of Munich's Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and the Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pom- pidou in Paris. Its pioneering history as it relates to Kandinsky and abstract art in general has provided the Guggenheim with the well-nigh unchallenge- able claim to primacy in the execution of the Vasily Kandinsky trilogy. Such an assessment does not in any sense reduce the originating institution's de- pendence upon the above-named sister institutions and upon many other museums, galleries and individuals,