Just as there are plays (Harold Pinter’s 1978 Betrayal) and musicals (Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 Merrily We Roll Along) that open their stories at the end and rewind backwards to the beginning, so the Guggenheim has organized its latest exhibition on Vasily Kandisky in reverse chronology, beginning with his late-life works at the bottom of the spiral and circling upward to his earliest works. Subtitled “Around the Circle,” the exhibition focuses on the way—through relocation from one country to another, through social and political upheaval—Kandinsky stayed true to his pursuit of spiritual expression, which he called an “inner necessity.” A decidedly fresh take on the great Kandinsky! —E.C.