Guggenheim
In October, I visited family in Jersey City. It was my first time on the East Coast, and I took the opportunity to briefly explore Manhattan and Brooklyn. A highlight was going to the Guggenheim, which was exhibiting the abstract expressionist Wassily Kandinsky and contemporary painter and poet Etel Adnan (who sadly passed away on 14 November 2021).
Kandinsky’s art and writings like Point and Line to Plane have been an inspiration to me since my adolescence and inform my own art practice. While he attempted to scientize art by correlating specific movements, colors, and shapes to analogous emotions, I resonate with his emphasis on playing with composition to confer spirituality. Forms have the potential to translate into soulful movement.
The setting was perfect to show Kandinsky, as Frank Lloyd Wright was originally tasked with creating a “temple of the spirit” in the Guggenheim’s architecture. The circular and curvilinear construction emulates the undulation and oscillation in Kandinsky’s work.
