THE CURATOR’S CHOICE
JEAN-LOUIS PRAT
According to Kandinsky himself, 1917 was a “dramatic” year. After getting married in February, he considered having a house and a large studio built in Moscow, but the October Revolution frustrated the project. Due to confiscations, he lost the building with 24 apartments he owned.
“To a large degree, we received compensation for our losses at the time of the revolution – Nina Kandinsky wrote. […] Art and culture underwent a revolutionary spring which eclipsed everything done in this field up to that time in Russia. Suddenly, all creators saw almost limitless possibilities open up before them.”
Over seven dramatic years in Russia (1915-1921), Kandinsky held important positions. As director of the National Acquisitions Committee, he participated in the creation of twenty-two provincial museums.
During this period, his artistic production is characterized by a strange heterogeneity. Some pictures are a hotbed of figurative schematic elements; others display a growing geometrization, attributable to Suprematism and Constructivism. At all times, however, composition prevails over construction, and intuition over reason.