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Discover a large exhibition showcasing the work of Vassily Kandinsky, regarded as being the father of abstract art. In Brussels from 08/03 to 30/06!

130 art pieces from several major Russian museums, such as the State Museum in Saint Petersburg, will plunge visitors back to the most crucial period of Kandinsky's career: 1901-1922.

Kandinsky, one of the most important artists of the 20th century, owes his fame to his first abstract piece Picture with a Circle painted in 1911, which sent shockwaves through the world of art and changed it forever.

The Russian artist had created a style of painting in which colourful gestures transform the artwork into a narrative which combined myth and fantasy, sensations and observation, literature and music.

A century later, the Russian maestro's paintings remain modern and relevant.

About the exhibition

The exhibition aims to show the significance of this staggering upheaval in it's Russian context.

The exhibition reveals links between Kandinsky's work and the art of popular culture and icons, but also with the avant-garde movement which had been flourishing in Russia since 1907.

It does this by showcasing works and objects that show the permanence of traditional artists' work, such as Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Gontcharova or Kazimir Malévitch.

Before bringing about the upheaval and proposing their brand of modernism, these artists had joined a movement in favour of a return to the traditions of art which had seen the rise of symbolist artists such as Nicholas Roerich, Ivan Bilibine or Mikhail Vroubel.

This is an exhibition where European modernity meets a return to Russian tradition which combines shamanistic trances, the revealing of the coloured world of the isba (log farmhouse) and the theology of icons that is at the heart of Russian spirituality.

It ends with Kandinsky fleeing soviet Russia in 1922 and accepting a job offer from Walter Gropius to teach at the Bauhaus alongside Paul Klee.

Kandinsky belongs to the generation that took its inspiration from the wealth of popular songs, legends and myths from eternal mother Russia!

This exhibition is the creation of a collaboration with the Russian Museum of Saint Petersburg.

Some pieces come from other Russian museums, the Pompidou Centre and private collections.

Location

• Royal Museums of Fine Arts: Museum of Ancient Art (BRUXELLES)