Charity Ball, 1954

Honestly, I knew very little about this artist or the book the exhibition is centered on before my visit. I had heard the name before but never connected the work with the artist. This exhibition, with all 83 photos from the book on view in sequential order, is small and managebale, has a tremendous impact on the viewer and is worth a trip to the Met. What struck me is that even though these images were taken over 50 years ago, many of them could be taken today. The issues that Frank brought up that highlight some of the faults of our country are still issues that we need to address such as classism and racism. For example the image Charity Ball from 1954 could have been taken last weekend at a holiday party in Manhattan. There are still those who think they are better than others because they have money or are educated. But this exhibition points out to us that we are all human and we are all Americans searching for a good life and happiness.

Original edition and cover, The Americans

In 1958 Frank’s book entitled The Americans was first published in France. The following year it would make its debut in the States. At first it was received with hostility as it forced viewers to see the nation as it really was, still segregated by race, economic and social standing. However, other photographers immediately recognized the book’s impact on changing the course of 20th century photography. He “looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a people plagued by racism, ill-served by politicians, and rendered numb by the ever expanding consumer culture.” But at the same time, he managed to find beauty in the overlooked areas of our nation. Frank took innovative shots of roads, diners, people, and cars linking shots thematically in his book.

Parade-Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955

Born in 1924 in Switzerland he began taking photographs in 1941. In February of 1947 he immigrated to the United States. Hired to shoot fashion shots for Harper’s Bazaar, he quit soon after he began. Frank traveled for four years selecting one thing to photograph in each city he visited: hats in Peru, chairs and flowers in Paris, and banker in London. In 1955 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, bought a used Ford and headed on a 10,000 mile journey across the nation in an attempt to get a sense of the people of America. He developed 767 rolls of film after this journey which would later become the basis of the book.

Trolley, New Orleans, 1955

The Americans is divided into four sections, each beginning with a photograph of a flag and exploring a different aspect of the American culture. Section one investigates people, section two takes a look at inequality, section three examines religion, work, media, and politics, and the fourth section implies that US politics drown out the voices of average citizens and that Americans worship false icons such as celebrities and cowboys. Each image appears spontaneous and fleeting due to dynamic compositions, often with exposures that seem too light or too dark; this was something not previously done before. This project allowed Frank the freedom to only attempt to please himself in the photographs he took as opposed to his previous jobs pleasing magazine editors. He was able to find something remarkable in the mundane, the banal. The last image of the book is a shot of his wife and son in the car. “By standing outside the car and looking in, he acknowledged his need to separate himself from his family in order to create his art and the price they had to pay for his choice.” Shortly after the book’s publication, Frank abandoned photography for filmmaking.

Several Circles, 1926

Vasily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 and died in France in 1944. Having broken new ground in painting at the beginning of the 20th century, the Guggenheim is holding the first retrospective of his work since 1985. In 1929 Solomon Guggenheim, under the advice of Hilla Rebay, purchased Kandinsky in depth, and in 1939 he opened the Museum of Non-Objective Art to display his collection. It was not until 1943 that Frank Lloyd Wright designed the current space which was built to house works like those of Kandinsky which are the “core” of the Guggenheim collection. Having personally never been blown away by the Guggenheim as a viewing space for large exhibitions, it was refreshing to see works on display that the building was actually created for. Included in the exhibition are around 100 paintings and 60 works on paper. Kandinsky lived through two World Wars and the 1917 Russian Revolution; there is no doubt that  his desire to create work that advocated the spiritual experience of life is born out of the environment and time in which he lived.

As a child Kandinsky was exposed to music and art. He studied law and economics but influenced by a viewing of Impressionist work (in particular Monet’s Haystack) at an exhibition in 1895, he left Moscow to study painting in Munich. At a Wagner concert in 1896, he noticed that music can elicit emotions despite its lack of a connection to a recognizable subject. He strove to create a similar experience for viewers of his work.

Landscape near Murnau with Locomotive, 1909

His early works evoke the Russia of his childhood and landscapes of places he visited during his many travels. He spent a year in Paris and his brushwork was clearly influenced by the Post-Impressionists and Fauves. In 1908 he returned to Munich and began a period of intense activity. He was a leading force in the avant-garde painting scene. He began to use more bold color and there was a growing trend of abstraction in his work. In 1912 he published Der Blaue Reiter with Franz Marc which contained images and articles united in the common idea of the expressionist potential of color. By 1910 much of his output included depictions of cataclysmic events…”his dream of a better, more spiritual future was achieved through the transformative powers of art.” It was during this time that the horse and rider theme also became prevalent which also represented his path toward salvation. As his work became more abstract, colors no longer corresponded to actual objects: blue trees, purple faces, green horses. This section included my favorite period of his work which is quite aesthetically pleasing.

Accent in Pink, 1926

In 1911 Kandinsky began a correspondence with a Viennese composer named Arnold Schonberg who was experimenting with music in a similar manner that Kandinsky was experimenting with painting. It was during this time that Kandinsky published his famous treatise “On the Spiritual in Art” which “examines the capacity of color to communicate the artist’s innermost psychological concerns.” It was during this period that Kandinsky’s style moved toward complete abstraction. Color, shape, and line became his primary focus. In 1914, due to World War I Kandinsky was forced to leave Germany and his creative period came to a screeching halt. It was not until 1916 that he returned to oil painting. He titled works similarly to musical scores: Improvisation, Composition, etc. One can begin to see how music is in his mind when he creates the work, shapes and line dance across the canvas in bright colors. In the 1920s Kandinsky’s work becomes darker with a more subdued palette. From 1922-1933 he lived and taught at the Bauhaus and the art he created during these years is characterized by a geometric style. He used circles (a form most closely linked to the cosmos), squares (representative of peace and calm), and triangles (symbolizing aggression) along with straight lines and grids. Kandinsky found the Bauhaus environment supportive of his belief in art to “transform self and society.” There are some lovely works in this section where what at first appears to be a monochromatic background upon further inspection turns out to be layers of shades of one color.

Accompanied Contrast, 1935

After moving to Paris in 1933, his Surrealist peers Arp, Miro, Ernst, and Klee began to inspire his work. He invented his own language of biomorphic forms and his palette shifted to soft pastels “applied with a lightness of touch.” It was during this time that he began to experiment with different materials, often combining sand with pigment. Not necessarily my taste, I appreciated these later works more on my second visit to the show. During World War II Kandinsky’s work was labeled “degenerate.” His productivity dwindled and in 1944, he died.

Succession, 1935