Rec Room: Elizabeth Onusko: Kandinsky

Odds are you won’t be able to make it to the Guggenheim by January 13th to see the extraordinary Wassily Kandinsky retrospective before it closes (if you can, I highly recommend going). Wandering along each spiraling level of the museum, witnessing Kandinsky’s evolution as an artist in the almost one hundred paintings presented, is inspiring and enlightening—but so, too, is the book accompanying the exhibition, Kandinsky. It is a gorgeous catalogue of his work, and like the exhibition, it presents interesting information on Kandinsky as a man, an artist, and a theorist. It’s no substitution for the exhibition; rather, the book serves as a record, an archive, for a unique show (it’s the first Kandinsky retrospect in the U.S. since 1985).

A few years ago, I read Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual in Art, his treatise on art, music, and color. It would be impossible for me to describe these meditations accurately in a short blurb—trust me, it’s incredible. A must read.

Bio: Elizabeth Onusko is Guernica’s assistant publisher. Read her last recommendation here.