‘Kandinsky's Universe: Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century’ featuring Carmen Herrera at Museum Barberini Potsdam, Germany

21 February 2025

Until 18 May, Museum Barberini Potsdam presents ‘Kandinsky's Universe: Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century’ featuring Carmen Herrera. The exhibition spans six decades and showcases how Geometric Abstraction found radical expression in all its variations in Europe and the USA.

At the beginning of the 20th century, artists no longer wanted to depict the visible; they aspired to a new visual language that reduced artistic expression to an interplay of colors, lines, and shapes. Inspired by the advanced technologies and theories of their time, including concepts of the fourth dimension and the space-time continuum, artists expanded their understanding of space and time. With images of geometric shapes floating in indefinite space, they sought to represent cosmic themes and higher spiritual levels.

In the 1960s, Carmen Herrera, Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly were among the artists who initiated the movement known as 'Hard Edge' painting. Characterized by clear forms, sharp contours, and brilliant colors, it distanced itself from the expressive approach that had dominated the New York art scene in the 1950s. The exhibition also features artists Josef Albers, Sonia Delaunay, Barbara Hepworth, Wassily Kandinsky, El Lissitzky, Agnes Martin, Piet Mondrian, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella, and Victor Vasarely.

Find out more via Museum Barberini Potsdam.

Image: Carmen Herrera, Diptych (Green & Black), 1976, Acrylic on canvas, Each panel: 114.9 x 101.6 x 3.8 cm, Each panel: 45 1/4 x 40 x 1 1/2 in © Carmen Herrera, Courtesy Lisson Gallery