“Kandinsky: The World Resounds” Opens November 7 at Nagano Prefectural Art Museum; Tracing His Career Through Works in Japanese Collections

On Saturday, November 7, “Kandinsky: The World Resounds – His Career and Its Resonance Traced Through Japanese Collections” opened at the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum (Nagano City). It runs until Sunday, December 27. The exhibition looks back on the career of Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), regarded as one of the founders of abstract painting, through works held in Japan, an approach the museum calls “a first.” A touring exhibition following the Utsunomiya Museum of Art and the Miyagi Museum of Art, it commemorates the 150th anniversary of Nagano Prefecture and the fifth anniversary of the museum’s reopening.

Why Nagano now? The first solo retrospective since 2002

According to the museum, this is the first solo retrospective of Kandinsky since the “Kandinsky” exhibitions of 1987 and 2002. The 1987 exhibition was held at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, and the 2002 exhibition at those two museums and the Fukuoka Art Museum. Many Japanese museums hold works by Kandinsky, and it has become possible to follow his career through them.

Kandinsky advocated his own concept of “inner sound” as the essence of art. The museum notes that his expression, which sought to make the arts resonate together beyond painting alone, had a great influence on the art of today. As soon as his works and theories were introduced in Japan around World War I, they caused a great stir among artists and aestheticians, and the exhibition also presents aspects of that reception based on the latest research.

The venue, the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, reopened in spring 2021 under the concept of a “landscape museum” after the complete rebuilding of the Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum. It stands in Joyama Park, next to Zenkoji Temple on its east side.

Highlights: his career and its resonance in Japan in five chapters

Chapter 1, “Munich, Inner Russia and Color,” covers his early years, when Kandinsky, who had studied law and economics at Moscow University, decided to become a painter and moved in 1896 to Munich, where Jugendstil was flourishing. Works depicting landscapes of the surrounding area and places he traveled, and imaginary scenes evoking medieval Russia and Germany, are presented in oil, watercolor, tempera, woodcut and other media.

Chapter 2, “The Path to Abstraction and ‘Der Blaue Reiter,’” begins with his work in Murnau from 1908. He came to grasp motifs as masses of colored forms, and eventually paintings emerged that expressed “inner sound” through color and form alone, without depicting specific objects. This was the period when he formed the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Artists’ Association of Munich) in 1909, left it at the end of 1911 and founded “Der Blaue Reiter” with Franz Marc and others. Activities spanning the arts, such as the poetry and print album “Klänge” (Sounds), and works by his fellow artists are also shown.

Chapter 3, “Kandinsky, Resonance in Japan,” traces his introduction in Japan from the 1910s onward. According to the press materials, two woodcuts by Kandinsky brought to Japan by Kosaku Yamada and Kazo Saito were shown at the “DER STURM Woodcut Exhibition” held at the Hibiya Art Museum in 1914, reportedly the first display of his actual works in Japan. The chapter also examines works by painters who drew formal inspiration from him and by painters interested in his theories.

Chapter 4, “Bauhaus, Under the Sign of Geometry,” begins with the period when he returned to Russia at the outbreak of World War I and worked in arts administration at the commission of the Soviet government. Coming into contact with Constructivist artists, he incorporated geometric forms into his paintings, and after returning to Germany he was appointed a master at the Weimar Bauhaus at the invitation of Walter Gropius. The print portfolio “Kleine Welten” (Small Worlds), introduced early in Japan, and materials conveying his teaching at the Bauhaus are also displayed.

Chapter 5, “Paris, A Gentle Flight,” covers his late years, when, after the closure of the Bauhaus under Nazi pressure, he moved to Paris in 1933 and lived in Neuilly-sur-Seine on its outskirts. His wide-ranging interests, including natural science, gave rise to supple, life-like motifs resembling microorganisms. In addition to oil paintings from his Paris years, drawings from his sketchbooks of the time are shown.

What can be seen? Works from the Miyagi Museum of Art, Artizon, Ohara, POLA and other collections

The main works listed on the official website and in the press materials are as follows (works without an artist’s name are by Kandinsky).

• “Arrival of the Merchants,” 1905, Miyagi Museum of Art

• “Three Lime Trees,” 1908, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

• “Study for ‘Panel for Edwin R. Campbell No. 4’ (Carnival/Winter),” 1914, Miyagi Museum of Art

• “Points,” 1920, Ohara Museum of Art

• “Without Support,” 1923, POLA Museum of Art

• “Floating,” 1927, Utsunomiya Museum of Art

• “Picture within a Picture,” 1929, The National Museum of Art, Osaka

• “The Whole,” 1940, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

• “Calmed Contrasts,” 1941, Utsunomiya Museum of Art

• “Two Blacks,” 1941, Kagoshima City Museum of Art

• Tai Kambara, “On Scriabin’s ‘Poem of Ecstasy,’” 1922, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

• Kazo Saito, “Embroidered Obi with Rhythm Pattern in Colored Thread,” c. 1940, The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts

Tickets, prices and access

Admission is 1,200 yen for adults (1,100 yen for groups of 20 or more) and 1,000 yen for university students and those 75 and over (900 yen for groups); high school students and younger and those under 18 are free. A combined ticket with the collection exhibitions in the Main Building and the Higashiyama Kaii Gallery costs 1,700 yen for adults and 1,300 yen for university students and those 75 and over. Holders of a disability certificate or similar and one companion, as well as students at universities and similar institutions in Nagano Prefecture, are also admitted free. High school students, university students and those 75 and over must show identification, and discounts cannot be combined.

Opening hours are 9:00–17:00 (last entry to the galleries 16:30), and the museum is closed on Wednesdays. The venue is Galleries 1, 2 and 3 in the Main Building. From Bus Stop 1 at the Zenkoji Exit of JR Nagano Station, take an Alpico Kotsu bus on route 11, 16 or 17 for about 15 minutes to “Zenkoji Kita,” a 3-minute walk from the museum. On route 10 (Binzuru-go), it is a 10-minute walk from “Zenkoji Daimon,” and on weekends and holidays the bus stops at “Joyama Koen-mae,” a 1-minute walk away. There is no parking for general visitors; at the Joyama Park parking lot, fees are discounted on presentation of an exhibition ticket.

Frequently asked questions

Are there lectures or gallery talks?

On the opening day, Saturday, November 7, from 14:00 to 15:30, Toru Matsumoto, deputy director of the Artizon Museum, will give Lecture 1, “Kandinsky: The World Resounds,” in the hall on the first basement floor of the Main Building (first 100 people). On Sunday, December 13, from 13:00 to 15:30, Lecture 2 will be held in the reception room on the 3rd floor of the Main Building (first 50 people), in which Yuki Kohiyama, deputy chief researcher at the Miyagi Museum of Art and planner of the exhibition, and Jun Ishikawa, specialist curator at the Utsunomiya Museum of Art, will talk mainly about the two museums’ collections.

Gallery talks by the curator in charge will be held at 14:00 on Saturday, November 14 and Saturday, December 5. All events are free but require an exhibition ticket, and no advance application is needed.

Editor’s perspective

As the subtitle suggests, the exhibition traces the painter’s life through Japanese collections, which also offers insight into how Japanese museums have collected Kandinsky.

Western art exhibitions are gathered in [2026–2027] Guide to Western Art Exhibitions, and events starting in November in our November 2026 art event calendar. Elsewhere in Nagano Prefecture, the second period of “Matsumoto Architecture Art Festival 2026 ADVANCE” runs in Matsumoto from November 3 to December 13.

Overview

Name: Kandinsky: The World Resounds – His Career and Its Resonance Traced Through Japanese Collections
Dates: Saturday, November 7 – Sunday, December 27, 2026
Hours: 9:00–17:00 (last entry to the galleries 16:30)
Closed: Wednesdays
Venue: Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, Main Building, Galleries 1, 2 and 3
Address: 1-4-4 Hakoshimizu, Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture (in Joyama Park, east of Zenkoji Temple)
Admission: Adults 1,200 yen, university students and 75 and over 1,000 yen, high school students and younger and under 18 free (combined ticket with the collection exhibitions: adults 1,700 yen, university students and 75 and over 1,300 yen)
Organizers: Nagano Prefecture, Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, Kandinsky Exhibition Executive Committee
Co-organizer: Nagano Prefectural Board of Education
Grant: Japan Foundation for Regional Art-Activities
Official website: https://nagano.art.museum/exhibition/exhibit2026_Kandinsky
*Information as of October 19, 2026. Please check the official website for the latest information.

*Top image: The Main Building of the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, November 2024 (photo: Kaisoku Odoriko, CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on press materials from the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum (September 7, 2026) and information on its official website.

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team