“Theme & Improvisation: Kandinsky & the American Avant-Garde, 1912-1950,” at the Dayton Art Institute, Ohio.
December 12, 1992—January 31, 1993
Art exhibitions that attempt to trace the influence of an artist or style may seem a cinch to organize, but in fact they are among the most difficult to bring off successfully. When one deals with a famous style, such as Cubism, the task can be relatively easy. But when one deals with a lesser-known style based on complex aesthetic ideas—and particularly when those ideas reach their audience through poor translations—then the task becomes complex.
Maryanne Lorenz and Gail Levin met and overcame the inherent obstacles in “Theme & Improvisation: Kandinsky & the American Avant-Garde, 1912-1950.” The exhibition began its national tour at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., last fall and will be on view at the Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, from February 13 through April 1, and at the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, from May 14 through August 1. The exhibition works so well, I think, largely because of the curators’ careful choice of objects. One comes away with the feeling of a large lacuna properly filled.
One hears much about the influence of primitivism, Cubism, and various other styles on modern American artists but little about Kandinsky. One indication of this neglect is that the first definitive study of the artist’s influence—Gail Levin’s doctoral dissertation, on which much of the exhibition is based—was not undertaken until the 1970s.