Vassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

The Atelier Des Lumières in Paris is currently showing an immersive installation exhibition dedicated to the Russian artist and theorist, Vassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). Divided into two sections monumental projections trace Kandinsky's work from his figuratitive paintings to his biomorphic abstractions. 

Shortly after a report condemned the Dutch Restitutions Committee for being insufficiently sympathetic to victims of Nazi oppression, an Amsterdam court has voted to uphold the committee’s decision not to return Vassily Kandinsky’s Bild mit Häusern to the family of former owner Robert Lewenstein.

A Kandinsky masterpiece in the Van Abbemuseum, Netherlands, long thought to have been “looted” during the Nazi era will be returned to the heirs of a German Jewish family. It is the first major restitution since the Dutch announced a new policy of goodwill. The family’s initial claim was dismissed seven years ago.

After a 9 year legal battle, Painting with Houses returns to the heirs of Emmanuel Lewenstein. Fleeing the Nazis in the Netherlands, his son sold the artwork ”under duress" to the museum in 1940. After two refusals in 2013 and 2018, an "amicable agreement" was finally reached with the City of Amsterdam.

Shapes and colors resonate in this 1956 gouache. With a freedom that does not rule out precision, the artist makes space vibrate.

In an unprecedented collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, the Pompidou Center has launched the immersive digital project “Sounds like Kandinsky”, featuring an online monograph, a “Pocket Gallery” (a virtual augmented reality exhibition) and “Play a Kandinsky” (an experiment exploring the artist’s synesthesia).

From February 18, the Atelier des Lumières in Paris is presenting two new immersive digital exhibitions: “Cézanne, the Lights of Provence” and “Kandinsky, the Odyssey and the Abstract”. Visitors can visit from Monday to Thursday from 10 am to 6 pm, and from Friday to Saturday until 10 pm.

The confirmation comes just days after news broke that the city’s mayor was in talks about returning the work to the heirs of the Jewish couple who sold it in 1940. The decision follows a years-long dispute over the 1909 painting, with a previous ruling stating that it could remain in Dutch hands. (AP)

The descendants believe that the sale of Wassily Kandinsky’s Bild mit Häusern (1909) to the Stedelijk in 1940 was forced by occupying Nazis. The defence now claims that four of seven members of the restitution committee, which dismissed the case for the work’s return in 2018, have close ties with the Amsterdam museum.

Frankfurt photographer and philanthropist Ulrike Crespo, who died in 2019, bequeathed 90 artworks to the Städel Museum. The museum will exhibit the works in an exhibition opening on November 24. Other artists featuring among in the collection are Paul Klee, Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Gustav Klimt and Oskar Schlemmer.