Subtitled “How a Radical Idea Changed Modern Art,” this landmark exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art presented a cogent, deep and thoroughly intriguing examination of the art movement that shaped and informed the 20th century. Incredibly broad and international in scope, MoMA has chosen to showcase not only well-known artists and pieces, but also fairly obscure ones. And in so doing, the show underscores the universality of the movement, with its rapid spread and enormous appeal.
The ideas behind early abstraction were totally radical; it was totally at variance with literally eons of art. From the time of the earliest cave paintings found in Spain and in the south of France dating from more than 40,000 years ago, the entire point of the exercise of art was to represent something recognizable in two or three dimensions. Throwing out the entire history of western art and starting from a whole new perspective was unheard of, unimaginable—and threw the art world into total chaos.
But somehow, in this exhibit, it all makes sense. Rather than seeming radical to us in 2012, the work displayed is today both comfortable and familiar. We get it. It is ours.
We see the evolution of abstraction, its radical roots, from J.M.W. Turner’s seascapes and from the loose brushwork of the artists of late Impressionism. The exhibit, which is both thematic and chronological, walks us back to the works of Franz Marc and Kandinsky, exhibited in Munich in the first decade of the century in the Blue Rider School. Then it’s on to early Picasso, to the Cubist works that bridge representational art with abstraction. Taking note of these early Picassos, Kandinsky noted that the artist had “split the subject up, scattered bits of it all over the picture.”
Artists themselves were in turmoil—and in touch—over what they felt to be the abandonment of tradition, reality and representation, moving gradually into the totally unknown realm of the purely abstract. The MoMA exhibition demonstrates that the movement was at once exciting and painful, simultaneously fraught with dissent and controversy. The birth of the new century saw the birth of modernism, not only in art, but also in music, dance, architecture and design. To underscore this fact, the MoMA exhibit includes a stunning silent film clip of Nijinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”
As one walks through the many galleries in this exhibition, the evolution of abstraction becomes clarified. From the gorgeous paintings of Robert and Sonia Delaunay, the spiritual, synergistic work of Kandinsky, the strictly disciplined art of Klee and Mondrian, the genesis story of abstract art slowly and intelligently unfolds. Paintings by Braque, whose “Nude Descending a Staircase” threw the American art world on its tale in the 1913 Armory Show, seem today like familiar bridges between realism and abstraction. Elegant, small wool needlepoints by Jean Arp demonstrate that abstraction was taking many forms and appearing in a myriad of differing media. It shows that the immense leap from representational to purely abstract art was, in essence, gradual and incremental. Kandinsky famously noted in 1896 that “objects harmed my pictures.” But it took him another decade before his art became abstract.
Abstraction was a group movement, and, as the MoMA exhibit so clearly shows, one that was absolutely global. Artists range from all over Europe, the U.S., Russia and Japan, and were all involved in the same Great Experiment, all moving towards a completely new aesthetic. The movement was punctuated by a series of landmark exhibitions and salons, by the birth of new galleries and dealers who understood the new art and were eager to sell it. These were nothing short of shocking—and forced many traditional artists into retreat or retirement.
In the first decade on the 20th century, modernity was manifesting in increased global connectivity. People traveled more than ever before, and ideas and movements become common currency. There was a huge proliferation of art journals and magazines, which led to the global spread of the ideas that were fundamental to the new movement.
It was art that was extremely and surprisingly conscious. Such issues as composition, color, and surface all came into play as significant factors, more than was usually the case with representational art. These early abstractionists were not just throwing paint on the canvas. They were intensely mindful of every aspect of what they were doing.
For the viewer, one of the most intriguing aspects of “Inventing Abstraction” is the inclusion of lesser-known artists sprinkled among the usual suspects. Rarely seen works by such artists as Kupka, Lissitzky, Carrington, Tzara, Marinetti, Weber, Strand, and many others, serves to emphasize the universality of the abstract movement, and leads to an understanding of the close connectivity and boundless bravery and imagination of these pioneering artists. Seeing so many unfamiliar artists in the company of the greats is both expansive and exciting, At once scholarly, broad and beautiful, this exhibit demonstrates why MoMA is so great. A quote from Kandinsky at the entrace to the exhibit poses the essential mission of the movement: “Must we not then renounce the object altogether, throw it to the winds and instead lay bare the purely abstract?”
(“Inventing Abstraction: 1910-1925” is at the Museum of Modern art in New York until April 15. A richly illustrated catalog, published by the museum, is $75.)u