Kandinsky: “The Bauhaus Album Rediscovered” now in Portugal! This exhibition, presenting 15 original works by Wassily Kandinsky (one of the most important artists of the 20th century), will take place in the exhibition hall of Torre dos Clérigos from November 21, 2023 to March 17, 2024 and will occupy a unique place in the cultural life of Portugal.
It is probably no coincidence that the first large exhibition of Wassily Kandinsky’s sketches, which turned into one of his most famous works, “On White II”, was held at the Kyiv National Art Gallery in 2021. The life and development of Kandinsky as an artist is inextricably linked with the Ukrainian city of Odesa. Kandinsky’s father Wassily Silvestrovich, a capable businessman who settled in Odesa and began to manage a tea-packing factory there when his son was 5 years old, did a lot to ensure that his son’s creative inclinations developed freely. He not only sent his son to the newly opened 3rd gymnasium, but also began to teach him music, like any Odesa child from a decent family, this is the way it was – and at the same time piano and cello.This seemed not enough, and he was also given classes with a private drawing teacher. Already in his child’s drawings, there were very unusual color combinations, which he explained by the fact that “each color lives its own mysterious life”. “I remember that drawing and a little later painting pulled me out of the conditions of reality,” he wrote later.
It is also unforgettable that the spiritual leadership of the historical complex of Clerigos, operating under the direct patronage of the Vatican, not only organized an exhibition of the brilliant artist, whose fate is inextricably linked to Ukraine, but also generously donated funds to the American Fund of Ukrainian Reconstruction; which is working on two projects for the reconstruction of temporary housing buildings for refugees from Mariupol.