Les ann?es parisiennes (1933-1944) / The Parisian Years (1933-1944) - Museum of Grenoble
24/05/2016
From 29th October to 29th January, visitors of the Museum of Grenoble, a small town in the south-east of France, will see Kandinsky’s paintings from his last creative period of 1933-1944. Remarkably the exhibition is held with the assistance of the Centre Georges Pompidou, which is famous for its collection of late Kandinsky’s paintings. By the way, in 2017 the National Centre of Art and Culture Gorges Pompidou will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
After Bauhaus was closed by Nazis in 1933, the Kandisnkys (Wassily was 67 years old then) moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, a former suburb of Paris, bordering upon the Bois de Boulogne. As Nina Kandinskaya wrote in her memoirs, they planned to stay in France for a year at most and then go to the USA, Italy of Switzerland. But the fate had it differently.
Over these years, the artist created 150 oil paintings and more than 300 watercolours and graphic works. After everything what had been done in geometric abstraction, the artist turned to new forms of self-expression. Influenced by scientific research studies in biology, abstract images in the works from that period obtain a pronounced biomorphic nature. It seems like strange creatures, after regenerating from triangles and circles, filled subdued and soft cosmic spaces.
In Paris, the artist felt more acutely what it meant to be an exile. The French art circle met his arrival and his new creative works without special excitement, and Kandinsky, active organizer and supporter of the newest ideas, feels isolated. Of course, it was also explained by political motives that always tend to worsen during war. Lack of money for buying paints and canvases had its effect, too. It goes without saying, it all could not help but influence Kandisnky’s works — they feature loneliness and detachment, as well as that very cosmism that probably makes the works even more valuable.
The Museum of Grenoble, founded in 1798, introduces its visitors to a diverse collection consisting of 1000 artifacts, from with masterpieces of the 13th century to works of modern artists. In due time it was the first museum of modern art in France that fully covered the tendencies of the 21st century.
https://www.museedegrenoble.fr/
