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ALBANY, N.Y. - An Art of Pure Form: Selections from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum will explore the language of form, color and line that comprise the various aspects of abstract art.

The exhibition, created for the Fleet Great Art Series, will be at the New York State Museum from May 18 to July 30 in West Gallery.

An Art of Pure Form will feature about 30 paintings and sculptures, including works by Vasily Kandinsky, Alexander Calder, Paul Klee, Josef Albers and Ross Bleckner.

Matthew Drutt, Associate Curator for Research at the Guggenheim, assembled this exhibition specifically for the Fleet Great Art Series drawing from the Guggenheim's renowned collection of non-objective art.

In order to create a purely artistic composition, painting has two weapons at her disposal: color and form. So wrote the Russia-born artist Kandinsky in 1912. The more abstract the form, the more clear and direct its appeal. In June of the following year, he began to invoke the term Gegenstandslos, meaning without object, to refer to his work.

The history of non-objectivity (also referred to as abstract) and the Guggenheim are intrinsically bound. What began as a movement in various coteries throughout Europe made its way to the United States thanks to Hilla Rebay von Ehrenwiesen and her consult, Solomon R. Guggenheim, heir to one of the largest mining families in the U.S.

Having amassed an eclectic gathering of Old Masters, American landscape painters and even Audubon prints, Guggenheim's collecting interests took a decidedly dramatic turn in 1927 after he met Rebay. She convinced him to buy works by Kandinsky and other practitioners of non-objectivity.

The first exhibition of non-objectivity art featuring Guggenheim's collection was held at the Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery in Charleston, S.C. Several other touring exhibitions followed. Four years later, The Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which later became the Guggenheim, was born.

The exhibition is the third installment in the Fleet Great Art Series, underwritten mainly by Fleet Bank. Additional support comes from the Hearst Foundation Inc., the Times Union of Albany, WNYT News Channel 13 and Lang Media.

Other participating world-class art museums in New York City include the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

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For slides, please call 518-474-0079.

*The New York State Museum on Madison Avenue in downtown Albany is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Sunday. The public may call us at 518-474-5877 for further information.