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Kandinsky

Vasily Kandinsky Improvisation 28 (Second Version), 1912

Vasily Kandinsky Improvisation 28 (second version) 1912, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

An abstract painting with a variety of forms and colours

Vasily Kandinsky Landscape with rain January 1913, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

An abstract painting, part of which includes colourful circles and other shapes on a black background

Vasily Kandinsky Circles on black 1921, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

A complex arrangement of different coloured shapes and forms on a pale background

Vasily Kandinsky Blue segment 1921, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Vasily Kandinsky 'Blue painting' January 1924, oil on canvas board, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Gift, Fuller Foundation, Inc, 1976

Vasily Kandinsky Blue painting January 1924, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

A complex arrangement of different coloured shapes and forms on a pale background

Vasily Kandinsky Dominant curve April 1936, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

A colourful abstract painting including rounded hills and a rectangular shape with a tall chimney

Vasily Kandinsky Landscape with factory chimney 1910, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Showcasing the life and work of one of the most influential and best-loved European modernists

Kandinsky

4 November 2023 – 10 March 2024

Art Gallery of New South Wales

Naala Nura, our south building

Lower level 2

🛈 Find out what you need to know before visiting

Tickets are dated but not timed, and can be used once
$35 adult
$32 concession
$30 member
$88 family (2 adults + up to 3 children)
$18 youth (12–17 years)
Free for children under 12 and companion card holders

Booked school groups
$8 student

Members can access free and discounted tickets

Dining packages available 

See Kandinsky + Louise Bourgeois and save!
$60 adult
$55 concession
$50 member
$150 family (2 adults + up to 3 children)
$30 youth (12–17 years)
Free for children under 12 and companion card holders

Art Pass for Sydney International Art Series
Kandinsky + Louise Bourgeois + Tacita Dean at the MCA
$80 adult
$70 concession
$30 youth (12–17 years)
Free for children under 12 and companion card holders

Ticket FAQs for more information, including refunds

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One of the great innovators of European abstraction, Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944) broke new ground in painting during the first decades of the 20th century. In his influential treatise, On the spiritual in art, published in 1911, he wrote about art’s potential to ‘stand alone’, with imagery independent of the natural world. The development of a new subject matter based solely on the artist’s ‘inner necessity’ would occupy him for the rest of his life.

This comprehensive exhibition, curated with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, draws from the Guggenheim’s rich holdings to reveal Kandinsky’s work in depth – from his beginnings in Munich, to his return to his birthplace of Moscow with the outbreak of World War One, followed by the interwar years in Germany where he was an instructor at the Bauhaus, and his final chapter in Paris.

A specially commissioned artist project – Point and Line to Plane by Desmond Lazaro – within the exhibition space draws inspiration from the ideas that influenced Kandinsky, to form an immersive and wondrous experience for all ages.

In conjunction with Kandinsky, a free exhibition of ‘spirit drawings’ created in the 1860s and 70s by British medium Georgiana Houghton helps to reveal the significant role spiritualism played in early modernism, while on the ground level This Living Being That Is Colour presents a small selection of works from the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection by contemporary artists who share Kandinsky’s belief in the power of colour and of abstraction.

Proudly supported by the NSW Government through its Create NSW Blockbusters Funding initiative and its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW, Kandinsky is presented as part of the Sydney International Art Series, along with Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day?, also at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Tacita Dean, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

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  • Visit information and accessibility

    • Bring your own device, with earbuds or headphones, to listen to our free audio guide in the exhibition.

    • This exhibition includes a specially designed family-friendly space as well as a children’s trail with fun activities. Children under 12 must be supervised by an adult at all times.

    • Also available free for loan are aids for people with low vision, including magnifying glasses and large-print labels in printed booklets or on iPads, and enChroma glasses for people with colour vision deficiency (sometimes called colour blindness). Ask at the welcome desk at the ground level of the South Building or at the exhibition entry.

    • You can also download PDFs of the children’s trail and large-print labels (below).

    • For more information about visiting, including physical access and facilities, see Plan your visit

    • For more information about our family and access programs, see Events

The Art Gallery of New South Wales gratefully acknowledges the support of the following major exhibition patrons: Matt Allen AM and Rowena Danziger AM.

Note: This display includes works that are protected under the Protection of Cultural Objects on Loan Act 2013. More information

Organised by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

This project proudly supported by the NSW Government through the Create NSW Blockbusters Funding initiative

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