June 19, 2004–July 31, 2005, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 

What is more real—paint arranged on the flat surface of a canvas to depict a convincing illusion of the “real” world, or an abstract work of art conveying an intense psychological experience? Twentieth-century art explores “reality” through realism, abstraction and variations thereof. Realistic paintings and sculptures imitate nature, and though this depicted world may appear astonishingly real, it is not. Vacillating between realism and abstraction, many imaginative works of art exaggerate color and form, while retaining degrees of recognizable imagery. Like realism, pure abstraction defies expectations. Its subject may be only the formal play of colors, shapes, lines and textures, but conversely, other variations often express spiritual and emotional content.

Wassily Kandinsky was the leading figure in the development of abstract art before World War I. His book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911), explained that art, like spirituality, must create a new, utopian order of experience. For Kandinsky, only abstract art could express spiritual ideals. The interactions of colors and forms carried emotional and spiritual meanings, and expressed an inner creative force. Deeply concerned with the visual expression of sound, and using music as analogy, he wrote: “Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand, which plays touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.”

Rose with Gray was painted during Kandinsky’s tenure on the faculty of the Weimar Bauhaus in Germany. Typical of his Bauhaus style, Rose with Gray is geometric and architectonic. Yet, the complexly mixed colors and carefully arranged forms of Rose with Gray serve as metaphors for cosmic forces and carry profound spiritual meaning.

Willem de Kooning’s Woman IV is a quintessential example of Abstract Expressionism, the first American art movement of international renown. The figural form of Woman IV, frontal and iconic, vacillates between recognizable form and pure abstraction. Painted in garish colors, she disassembles, reassembles, and merges into a field of painterly brushstrokes.

De Kooning identified the fusion of references present in Woman IV: Venus, the nude, ancient fertility goddesses, Mesopotamian idols, contemporary women, the pin-up of the early 1950s and even the abstract forces of nature. Fully aware of the ambiguity of form and content in his paintings, he observed: “Content is a glimpse of something, an encounter like a flash.” 

Fairfield Porter’s The Mirror explores the relationship between reality and illusion. In The Mirror, the artist depicts himself painting a portrait of his ten-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. Her gaze, from within the illusionistic space of the canvas, acknowledges the viewer’s presence in “real space.” Simultaneously, the artist’s reflection in the mirror establishes another level of space that is neither ours nor Elizabeth’s. While Porter entered the art world as the Abstract Expressionists were gaining international recognition, he retained a commitment to traditional, realistic subjects.

Sol LeWitt is one of the pioneers of Conceptual Art. He believes that the idea behind a work of art is more important than the object itself. LeWitt’s pure, abstract sculpture 1 3 5 7 9 11 engages rational thought and is not intended to express emotional or spiritual content. The concept of 1 3 5 7 9 11 is based on the measurement unit of one cube. The sculpture’s top section is one cube wide; the next lower section is three cubes wide, and so on. The height of each horizontal section follows a related logic.

Within twentieth-century art, limitless possibility fills the separation between realism and abstraction, yet the two are never far apart.

Focus exhibitions are supported by the Campbell-Calvin Fund for special exhibitions and H&R Block. Midwest Airlines is the official airline sponsor.