Kandinsky Exhibition Opens in Rio de Janeiro at CCBB

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The exhibition, “Kandinsky: Tudo Começa num Ponto” (Kandinsky: All Begins at a Point) opens today, Wednesday, January 28th in the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro (CCBB) and will run through March 30th.

Curated by Evgenia Petrova and Joseph Kiblitsky, the free public exhibition traces the life and work of Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky through over one hundred and fifty pieces. On display are paintings, photographs, and various objects including illustrations, lithographs, woodcuts, and pottery as well as religious symbols and works that inspired Kandinsky.

Considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century and a pioneer of abstractionism, Kandinsky was born in Moscow, Russia in 1866 and lived until 1944.

During his life, he created hundreds of paintings and also become an important art theorist of the time. He examined the impact of color in art; art’s psychological impact on viewers; and the relation of music, movement and spirituality to art.

The current exhibition is separated into five sections that explore Kandinsky’s work, its origins and its influences. One section examines the possible influence of popular culture and Russian folklore during Kandinsky’s early development while another section explores the influence of spirituality, shamanism and religion on his work.

Additionally Kandinsky’s role in the expressionist art group, Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) and his interactions with German composer Arnold Schonberg are both explored in the sections.

“This exhibition is a collection of works never before seen presented this way anywhere else in the world,” coordinator of the exhibition, Rodolfo de Hatayde told Agência Brasil in Brasília after the exhibition first opened there in November of last year.

“The works are rare because they mostly correspond to periods in the mid-1920s, before the beginning of the creation of abstract art,” Hatayde continued. “It is unheard of for a collection of this magnitude [to be shown here] and it is a fairly important Brazilian cultural programming event.”

It is, in fact, the largest Kandinsky exhibition to ever be displayed in Latin America, to date. The combined pieces of the exhibition had to be insured at R$350 million.

With the works, which are mostly on loan from The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, as well as from seven additional museums in Russia and private collections in England, France, Austria and Germany, the exhibition will travel to four Brazilian cities before the pieces return in September of this year.

After opening in Brasília, the showing in Rio de Janeiro marks the exhibition’s second stop in Brazil. In April, it will move on to Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais and in July it will make its final stop in São Paulo.

What: “Kandinsky: Tudo Começa num Ponto” (All Begins at a Point) Exhibition
When: Wednesday, January 28th – Monday, March 30th.
Where: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro (CCBB), Rua Primeiro de Março 66, Centro
Entrance: FREE