BRACK: New Gibbes exhibit offers world-class modern art

Improvisation 28, 1912, by Vasily Kandinsky, oil on canvas

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |   Kandinsky, Picasso, Modigliani, Bauer, Chagall, Leger – these aren’t names one normally associates with Charleston’s art scene.  But you can see these 20^th century abstract masters’ works now at a special new show at the Gibbes Museum of Art that has ties to the Lowcountry’s past.

If you enjoy modern art, you don’t want to miss the Realm of the Spirit show.  You’ll find joy looking at the flair of lines and interplay of color in Kandinsky’s works.  There’s a Picasso painting of an accordionist created at the height of the artist’s embrace of Cubism.  Nearby is a somber, modern Mannerist portrait by Modigliani of the lover who killed herself soon after the painter died of tuberculosis.  A few steps away are works that highlight the complete break with representational art that modernists made a century ago.

Accordionist, Ceret, summer 1911, by Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas.

Back in the 1920s, successful mining magnate and industrialist Solomon R. Guggenheim retired to take up the collecting of art full-time.  He and his wife Irene bought a winter home in Charleston and a property in Yemassee.  Soon they became prominent figures in Charleston.  As Guggenheim became fully immersed in collecting art, he agreed to allow some abstract and non-objective art to be shown in 1936 – and again in 1938 — in the Gibbes, the South’s oldest art museum building.  Some 21 years later, Guggenheim’s collection found a permanent home in New York in the museum bearing his name in the famous building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Many of the works shown in Charleston in 1936 and 1938 “remain centerpieces of the Founding Collection at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, an institution whose mission was first tested here in Charleston,” according to a sign at the new show.

Jeanne Hebuterne with Yellow Sweater, 1918-19, by Amedeo Modigliani, oil on canvas.

Realm of the Spirit, organized by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation of New York, features 35 works by world-renowned artists.  The show runs through Jan. 15, 2017.

“We are honored to share much of the art featured in the original exhibitions with visitors to the Gibbes today in Realm of the Spirit,” said Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in a press release.  “Through both figurative and abstract works, this selection from the Guggenheim collection emphasizes the timeless founding vision of the museum and the belief that non-objective art conveys the spiritual joy of creation.”

The Gibbes, which recently reopened after a two-year, $14 million renovation and restoration, is preserving the character of the original exhibitions of Guggenheim’s art by showing works in the same building today and adopting “their specified arrangements by dividing the works into ‘non-objective paintings’ – abstract art that had no ties to the visible world – and ‘paintings with an object.”

Gibbes executive director Angela Mack notes that the new exhibit is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see great works in Charleston and “offers visitors an authentic viewing experience that wouldn’t be possible without the major restoration work that has taken place at the Gibbes.”

Winter Landscape with Church, 1910-11, by Vasily Kandinsky, oil on board.

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