Kandinsky's Universe:
Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century
Museum Barberini, Postdam
February 15 - May 18, 2025
White Cross, 1922
Oil on canvas, 100,5 × 110,6 cm
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venedig
(Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York)
Composition Z VIII, 1924
Distemper on canvas, 114 × 132 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie
Composition with Yellow and Blue, 1932
Oil on canvas, 55 × 55 cm
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Beyeler Collection;
Acquired with the generous support of
Hartmann P. and Cécile Koechlin-Tanner, Riehen
The Museum Barberini is presenting the exhibition Kandinsky's Universe. Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century. The exhibition is the first to highlight the links between geometric-abstract art movements such as Constructivism, De Stijl and Optical Art and focuses on Wassily Kandinsky as a central figure of abstraction.
At the beginning of the 20th century, painting underwent a profound transformation. Artists no longer wanted to depict the visible; they aspired to a new visual language that reduced artistic expression to an interplay of colors, lines, and shapes. Geometric Abstraction viewed these elements as a visual language that reflected the modern world and transcended national boundaries. Kandinsky’s Universe: Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century spans six decades and showcases how Geometric Abstraction found radical expression in all its variations in Europe and the USA.
Above and left, 1925
Oil on cardboard, 70 × 50 cm
Private collection
Twelve Spaces with Planes, Angular Bands,
and Laid with Circles, 1939
Oil and pencil on canvas, 80.5 × 116 cm
Kunsthaus Zürich; Gift from Hans Arp, 1958
Jigsaw, 1969
Acrylic on canvas, 203.2 × 183.2 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;
Purchase, with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Harry Kahn
The exhibition features 125 artworks by 70 artists, among them twelve paintings by Wassily Kandinsky and works by Josef Albers, Sonia Delaunay, Barbara Hepworth, El Lissitzky, Agnes Martin, Piet Mondrian, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Victor Vasarely. Among the more than thirty international lenders are The Courtauld, London, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, the Fondation Gandur pour l'Art in Geneva and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
Curator of the exhibition: Sterre Barentsen, Museum Barberini
MUSEUM BARBERINI
Humboldtstraße 5–6 , Alter Markt , 14467 Potsdam
