In this remarkable book, anticipating “the spiritual turning point” Kandinsky reflects on his understanding of progress in this direction. This is not a process that happens automatically. It requires a great deal of work and implies a great responsibility of both artist and viewer. The task of the artist is to find “the principle of the innermost necessity” that he or she can employ through expressive means to achieve the goal: “vibration of the human soul.”

Using vivid analogies, Kandinsky discusses at length on the artistic means: the psychology of color, the compositional interrelation of forms, and other formal concerns. However, the main goal of an artist still remains to find that very innermost necessity”, that rooted in the spiritual foundations of the individual.

For the viewer, in turn, the task is to find within themselves the purity of perception, which, at this level, does not concern the beauty of nature. The ideal imitation of nature as the apex of artistic mastery has remained in the past. The impressions of Impressionists, the emotions of Expressionists, the experiments of Cubists - all these stages have long been passed, and now the task of the viewer is to see the beauty of pure color and pure form.

Kandinsky anticipates the emergence of abstract art as the purest vehicle of influence on the human soul, and views the future with optimism, predicting the arrival of an epoch of great spirituality.



READ Concerning the Spiritual in Art
BUY Concerning the Spiritual in Art

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