KANDINSKY
Hilla Rebay [Editor]
Hilla Rebay [Editor]: KANDINSKY. New York Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1945. First edition. Folio. Decorated paper covered boards. 48 pp. 9 tipped in plates. 10 black and white images. 5 essays by Kandinsky. Elaborate design and production. Edges chipped and worn. Covers rubbed. Large gift inscription "Merry Xmas '45 / to the [Morton] / Goldsholl Studio / from Adele and Sydney Roth" on front free endpaper. A good copy of this fragile, oversized publication.
10.25 x 13.75 hardcover book with 48 pages, 9 tipped in plates and 10 black and white images. Published on the occasion of the Kandinsky Memorial Exhibition, Museum of Non-Objective Paintings [March 15 - May 15, 1945]. The Guggenheim Foundation presented a survey of the artist's paintings and writings, arranged and edited by Museum Director Hilla Rebay. The exhibition was organized by Rebay, in her capacity as curator of the collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim. Rebay was the founder of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, the forerunner to today's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Kandinsky once said that "The more frightening the world becomes . . . the more art becomes abstract." Working your way through his beginnings of his career to the end in this compendium, you can only conclude that as the world must have become more and more frightening to him. Funny to think that some people find abstraction threatening.