Collection in Focus | Modern European Currents

At the beginning of the twentieth century, artists across Europe reimagined the possibilities of painting to reflect their rapidly changing world. Influenced by sweeping social and economic changes and energized by the avant-garde, they broke from tradition to experiment with vivid color, flattened forms, and heightened emotional expression.

Modern European Currents, featuring works from the Guggenheim's collection by Natalia Goncharova, Vasily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and more, captures this pivotal moment of artistic innovation and exchange. Artists turned to spirituality, nature, and abstraction as ways to interpret modern life, while also drawing from folk art and global influences in search of deeper connections. This exhibition invites you to explore a transformative turning point—when artists redefined the role of art in society and paved the way for the rise of abstraction.

This exhibition is organized by Megan Fontanella, Curator of Modern Art and Provenance, and Vivien Greene, Senior Curator of 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art, Guggenheim New York.