Curating and Conserving Kandinsky
6:39 | Published on September 8, 2009 | 1,433 Views
Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Tracey Bashkoff introduces Kandinsky, a traveling exhibition of the work of pioneering painter and eminent aesthetic theorist Vasily Kandinsky organized in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich. Bashkoff sheds light on Kandinsky’s relationship with the Guggenheim, a connection integral to the early history of the museum that continues to inform the collection today. Bashkoff likewise shares the artist’s formative views on abstraction. The chronological organization of the exhibition permits viewers to identify important themes from different moments in Kandinsky’s career—the horse and rider, apocalypse, landscape, geometry, and scientific imagery—as well as the key events that informed his life and work. Senior Conservator Gillian McMillan, whose department is charged with the physical well-being and preservation of the collection, describes the complexities of treating works by Kandinsky and explains how various conservation techniques and tools have provided insightful discoveries into Kandinsky’s working process.
For more information, visit Kandinsky.