It couldn't come more full cirlce: Kandinsky created his only stage production based on Mussorgsky's piano cycle, "Pictures at an Exhibition," inspired by a photo exhibition. Kandinsky's stage designs are now on exhibit.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
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Kandinsky and Mussorgsky: When art meets music
Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky created his first and only stage production based on Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" in Dessau - where the original designs can now be seen in an exhibition.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Figurines at the Great Gate
Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky wrote his piano work "Pictures at an Exhibition" after having seen an exhibition of his friend, the painter Victor Hartmann, whom he respected very much. Mussorgsky's main goal was not to create a precise musical presentation of the paintings, but to portray the impressions left behind by his deceased friend. Kandinsky was a big fan of the music.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
The Great Gate of Kyiv
In 2016, the art world celebrated the 150th birthday of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky - an appropriate occasion for bringing the original designs of his stage production "Pictures at an Exhibition" to Dessau, where the work premiered in 1928. The paintings were based on the piano cycle with the same title by composer Modest Mussorgsky.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Gnomus
The model for "Gnomus" is said to have been a watercolor by Hartmann depicting "a gnome clumsily stumbling around on his short legs." Kandinsky's stage setting is only slightly reminiscent of that. Art historian Ludwig Grote describes horizontal stripes that flash up before vertical stripes and a little black figurine appear.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Catacombae
In musical terms, "Catacombae" is a dialogue between Mussorgsky and his dead friend Hartmann. For art historian Ludwig Grote, Kandinsky's transformation on stage was a rather sobering experience: "Whitish-greenish underground. The forms build up according to their size, moving from left to right, until finally the great arch drops down from above."
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
The Hut of Baba Yaga
The daily "Anhalter Anzeiger" wrote about the premiere, "A mysterious construction is standing in front of us, a pointer is turning around, colors are flashing up: green and yellow - the lights at the sides are flashing up again: an incredible tension is enticing, and at the same time, torturing the viewer - it's that old secret that, in our imagination, is surrounding witches and magicians."
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Bydlo
Kandinsky's stage direction for this painting was, "All of the figurines are to appear immaterial levitating in a non-defined space." The circles are reminiscent of the wheels of a hay wagon. When Mussorgsky composed this piece, he was imagining a hay wagon drawn by an ox.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
The Marketplace at Limoges
Kandinsky's wife Nina said about the work of her husband, "He was unusually gifted in that he was able to imagine the world of his paintings with all of its forms and colors exactly in the same way in which they then appeared on the canvas. His ideas struck him very suddenly in a moment of enlightenment after which he tried to capture them in little thumb-sketches."
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Das Meisterhaus in Dessau
The incentive for Kandinsky's stage composition was given by Georg Hartmann, the director of the Friedrich-Theater in Dessau. When visiting Kandinsky's Studio, he was struck by some compositions "which, with their lines and powerful colors, their dramatic contrasts, appeared to have been made for the stage."
Image: Förderverein Meisterhäuser Dessau e.V.
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"Pictures at an Exhibition" were originally a cycle of works for piano written by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. For artist Wassily Kandinsky, the cycle served as a basis for his first and only theater project, which was premiered in the German city of Dessau in 1928.
The stage designs for the production are now being exhibited, in honor of the painter's 150th birthday, in Kandinsky's former residence in Dessau.
Wassily Kandinsky was out to create a synthetic "Gesamtkunstwerk." For him, that meant that sounds took on hues that listeners could see before their eyes as they listened to the music. It was intended to be a Gesamtkustwerk of sound, color and motion.
"Worldwide, only two series remain from the stage designs - one in Centre Pompidou in Paris and the other in a theater studies collection at the University of Cologne," said Harald Wetzel, organizer of the exhibition at the Dessau Masters' Houses. Included in the exhibition are images from the Cologne collection.
The home of a Bauhaus artist
Wassily Kandinsky lived and worked in Dessau from 1925 to 1932 as a master with the Bauhaus school of art and design. Those were his most productive years. Over 500 painters and watercolors were created in his studio in the masters' settlement.
The so-called masters' houses were designed for the Bauhaus teachers - by none other than architect and Bauhaus director Walter Gropius himself. In 1926, the artistic movement relocated from Weimar to Dessau and spent just a year and a half erecting a college building and the masters' houses.
A foundation for the Dessau Masters' Houses takes care of preserving the four houses, a unique architectural ensemble of great historical value. They have since been restored to their original design and color.
The rooms in Kandinsky's former home usually stand empty - except for the color accents. The artist preferred color on the ceilings, doors and walls, including light green, white, crimson, black and ocher. They are the same colors that Kandinsky integrated into his stage designs, which - along with the geometrical forms - are typical for Bauhaus.
Musical geometry on stage
In the spring of 1874, composer Modest Mussorgsky saw a retrospective of befriended painter and architect Viktor Hartmann. Included were pictures that Hartmann had taken on a journey to Europe, such as the Great Gate of Kyiv, an Italian palace, and the catacombs of Paris.
Mussorgsky composed "Pictures at an Exhibition" in memory of Hartmann, who had died the previous year. It's not entirely clear which of Hartmann's pictures had inspired Mussorgsky the most.
Wassily Kandinsky, however, was fascinated by the music and began to express his impressions in his artwork. "Kandinsky's task was to turn the music into paintings," said Harald Wetzel.
For the stage production of "Pictures at an Exhibition," various geometrical elements were supposed to be pushed onto the stage or pulled off of it. "The exhibited pictures give just a limited impression of the stage production," explained Wetzel. "The individual elements were constantly in motion."
While the orchestra played, images came into being on stage - in sync with the music.
Dessau remained the only cite where Kandinsky's work was performed, although a performance in the US had originally been planned. It wasn't until the a 1983 festival in Berlin that the work was reconstructed by students from the Berlin University of the Arts, based on a script and the stage designs from the collection at the University of Cologne.
Since then, many versions of Kandinsky's production have been staged, including multimedia variations with video, which are presented now and then in concert halls and museums from New York to Hong Kong.
Kandinsky's original stage designs are on display in Dessau through May 22, 2016.
Kandinsky and Mussorgsky: When art meets music
Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky created his first and only stage production based on Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" in Dessau - where the original designs can now be seen in an exhibition.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Figurines at the Great Gate
Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky wrote his piano work "Pictures at an Exhibition" after having seen an exhibition of his friend, the painter Victor Hartmann, whom he respected very much. Mussorgsky's main goal was not to create a precise musical presentation of the paintings, but to portray the impressions left behind by his deceased friend. Kandinsky was a big fan of the music.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
The Great Gate of Kyiv
In 2016, the art world celebrated the 150th birthday of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky - an appropriate occasion for bringing the original designs of his stage production "Pictures at an Exhibition" to Dessau, where the work premiered in 1928. The paintings were based on the piano cycle with the same title by composer Modest Mussorgsky.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Gnomus
The model for "Gnomus" is said to have been a watercolor by Hartmann depicting "a gnome clumsily stumbling around on his short legs." Kandinsky's stage setting is only slightly reminiscent of that. Art historian Ludwig Grote describes horizontal stripes that flash up before vertical stripes and a little black figurine appear.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Catacombae
In musical terms, "Catacombae" is a dialogue between Mussorgsky and his dead friend Hartmann. For art historian Ludwig Grote, Kandinsky's transformation on stage was a rather sobering experience: "Whitish-greenish underground. The forms build up according to their size, moving from left to right, until finally the great arch drops down from above."
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
The Hut of Baba Yaga
The daily "Anhalter Anzeiger" wrote about the premiere, "A mysterious construction is standing in front of us, a pointer is turning around, colors are flashing up: green and yellow - the lights at the sides are flashing up again: an incredible tension is enticing, and at the same time, torturing the viewer - it's that old secret that, in our imagination, is surrounding witches and magicians."
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Bydlo
Kandinsky's stage direction for this painting was, "All of the figurines are to appear immaterial levitating in a non-defined space." The circles are reminiscent of the wheels of a hay wagon. When Mussorgsky composed this piece, he was imagining a hay wagon drawn by an ox.
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
The Marketplace at Limoges
Kandinsky's wife Nina said about the work of her husband, "He was unusually gifted in that he was able to imagine the world of his paintings with all of its forms and colors exactly in the same way in which they then appeared on the canvas. His ideas struck him very suddenly in a moment of enlightenment after which he tried to capture them in little thumb-sketches."
Image: Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Universität zu Köln
Das Meisterhaus in Dessau
The incentive for Kandinsky's stage composition was given by Georg Hartmann, the director of the Friedrich-Theater in Dessau. When visiting Kandinsky's Studio, he was struck by some compositions "which, with their lines and powerful colors, their dramatic contrasts, appeared to have been made for the stage."
