Inventing Abstraction

Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925, on view at MoMA from December 23, 2012, to April 15, 2013, explores the advent of abstraction as both a historical idea and an emergent artistic practice. Commemorating the centennial of the moment at which a series of artists "invented" abstraction, the exhibition is a sweeping survey of more than 400 artworks in a broad range of medium—including paintings, drawings, prints, books, sculptures, films, photographs, recordings, and dance pieces—that represent a radical moment when the rules of art making were fundamentally transformed. Half of the works in the exhibition, many of which have rarely been seen in the United States, come from major international public and private collectors. The exhibition is organized by Leah Dickerman, Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art.

A key premise of the exhibition is abstraction's role as a cross-media practice from the start. This motion is illustrated through an exploration of the productive relationships between artists, composers, dancers, and poets in establishing a new modern language for the arts. Inventing Abstraction brings together works from a wide range of artistic mediums to draw a rich portrait of the watershed moment in which traditional art was wholly reinvented.

Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925
Kuratorin: Leah Dickerman

Künstler: Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Robert Delaunay, Frantisek Kupka, Hans Arp, Fernand Léger, El Lissitzky, Kasimir Malewitsch, Piet Mondrian, Katarzyna Kobro, Wladyslaw Strzeminski, Guillaume Apollinaire, Rudolf von Laban, Arnold Schönberg...