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Abstract
In Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911) and other writings, the artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) pursues several guiding questions concerning the spiritual aspects of art. For example: What is the relationship between art and spirituality? How does a work of art express spiritual ideas and themes? And would it be helpful to think of the artist as a kind of visionary or a spiritual seer? In this article, I reconstruct Kandinsky’s theory of art and I clarify his understanding of what spirituality is. Then I return to the three guiding questions listed above to consider the relationship between art and spirituality in the light of Kandinsky’s views. I argue that both Kandinsky’s writings and his paintings help to illuminate the spiritual dimension of art, and his pioneering text, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, remains an important starting-point for reflections on this theme.
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Arnold, Matthew. Essays in Criticism. London: Dent, 1964.
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Danto, Arthur. After the End of Art. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.
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Etter, Brian. From Classicism to Modernism: Western Musical Culture and the Metaphysics of Order. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2001.
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Golding, John. Paths to the Absolute. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
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Graham, Gordon. The Re-enchantment of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
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Henry, Michel. Seeing the Invisible: On Kandinsky. Trans. S. Davidson. London: Continuum, 2009.
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Kandinsky, Wassily. Complete Writings on Art. Ed. K. Lindsay, and P. Vergo. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982.
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Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Trans. M. Sadler. Boston: MFA Publications, 2006.
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Kandinsky, Wassily. “Reminiscences.” Modern Artists on Art. 2nd ed. Ed. R. Herbert. Mineola NY: Dover, 2000, 19–39.
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Kandinsky, Wassily, and F. Marc, eds. The Blaue Reiter Almanac. Trans. H. Falkenstein. New York: Viking, 1974.
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Kuspit, Donald. “Reconsidering the Spiritual in Art.” Blackbird: an Online Journal of Literature and the Arts 2. 1 (Spring 2003): www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v2n1/gallery/kuspit_d/reconsidering_text.htm
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Lipsey, Roger. The Spiritual in Twentieth Century Art. New York: Dover, 2004.
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Long, Rose-Carol Washton. “Expressionism, Abstractionism, and the Search for Utopia in Germany.” The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1945. Ed. Maurice Tuchman. New York: Abbeville, 1986, 201–218.
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Nietzsche. Human, All Too Human. Trans. R. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
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Peters, Olaf, ed. Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany 1937. New York: Prestel, 2014.
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Pickstone, Charles. “A Return to the Spiritual: Wassily Kandinsky in the Twenty-First Century.” Modern Painters (June 2006): 72–75.
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Plato, “Ion.” The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Ed. E. Hamilton and H. Cairns. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978. 215–228.
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Ringbom, Sexton. “Transcending the Visible: The Generation of the Abstract Pioneers.” The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985. Ed. Maurice Tuchman. New York: Abbeville, 1986. 131–153.
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Selz, Peter. “The Aesthetic Theories of Kandinsky and their Relationship to the Origin of Non-Objective Painting.” Readings in Art History. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. Ed. H. Spencer. New York: Scribner, 1982. 421–440.
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Tillich, Paul. On Art and Architecture. Ed. J. Dillenberger, and J. Dillenberger. New York: Crossroad, 1987.
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Tuchman, Maurice, ed. The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1945. New York: Abbeville, 1986.
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Wuthnow, Robert. Creative Spirituality: The Way of the Artist. Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2001.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1666 | 524 | 6 |
| Full Text Views | 332 | 48 | 1 |
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Search for other papers by Richard J. White in
Current site
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PubMed
Abstract
In Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911) and other writings, the artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) pursues several guiding questions concerning the spiritual aspects of art. For example: What is the relationship between art and spirituality? How does a work of art express spiritual ideas and themes? And would it be helpful to think of the artist as a kind of visionary or a spiritual seer? In this article, I reconstruct Kandinsky’s theory of art and I clarify his understanding of what spirituality is. Then I return to the three guiding questions listed above to consider the relationship between art and spirituality in the light of Kandinsky’s views. I argue that both Kandinsky’s writings and his paintings help to illuminate the spiritual dimension of art, and his pioneering text, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, remains an important starting-point for reflections on this theme.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1666 | 524 | 6 |
| Full Text Views | 332 | 48 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 587 | 97 | 3 |