of kandinsky

“Doo­dle in a lec­ture, graph­ic use of your hands, it’s rhyth­mic, and it has the same rhythms as con­ver­sa­tion, the same rhythms as be­ing rocked as a baby.”
—Dr. Bruce D. Per­ry on mu­sic and our brain, PBS 24 Oc­to­ber 2022

“The artist must train not only their eye but also their soul.”
—Wass­i­ly Kandin­sky (1866–1944)
 

Con­cern­ing the Spir­i­tu­al in Art (1911)
is a philo­soph­i­cal tract writ­ten by painter Wass­i­ly Kandin­sky to ex­plain the sig­nif­i­cance of the nü, mor and MOR ab­stract art of the time. 

Kandin­sky was one of the first to re­al­ize the ceas­ing need of the fig­u­ra­tive, where colour and form were in­creas­ing­ly be­com­ing more im­por­tant than a re­al­is­tic rep­re­sen­ta­tion of objects. 

He speaks of the soul’s ab­sence in many skill­ful, though ab­stract paint­ings – paint­ings that lack spir­i­tu­al con­nec­tion with their audience. 

He writes in length how mu­sic has al­ready em­braced the ab­stract – by not de­scrib­ing re­al­i­ty, mu­sic builds atmosphere — 

And just like the nu­ance of sound, tints and shapes are ca­pa­ble of evok­ing some­thing mys­ti­cal in their spectator’s heart.

 

“Lend your ears to mu­sic, open your eyes to paint­ing, and … stop think­ing! Just ask your­self whether the work has en­abled you to ‘walk about’ into a hith­er­to un­known world. If the an­swer is yes, what more do you want?”
—Kandin­sky

To­day, fortunately,
many peo­ple un­der­stand that pure skill should not be above the emo­tion­al com­po­nent of art. 

In the be­gin­ning of the 20th century,
how­ev­er, such an idea was rev­o­lu­tion­ary and had to be ex­plained by the pi­o­neers of the movement. 

I rec­om­mend his book
to the ones who still do not have faith in con­tem­po­rary art and judge works by their pro­por­tion­al ex­cel­lence alone.

I be­lieve it is good to go out of our com­fort zone,
so, if it is your case,
the pas­sion of Wass­i­ly Kandinsky’s words can chal­lenge your per­cep­tion of the arts.

 

Oth­er books in my orbit:

🖼 Rogue’s Gallery: A His­to­ry of Art and its Dealers
by Philip Hook

🎎 Short Sto­ries
by Ryuno­suke Akutagawa

💔 Heav­en Has No Favorites
by Erich Maria Remarque

🪷 Bud­dhism: A Very Short Introduction
by Damien Ke­own

and, of course,

🎨 Writ­ings On Art
by Wass­i­ly Kandinsky
 

I am a slow-read­er, so this list might in­clude things that I may just start or fin­ish over the com­ing months.

 

—pur­ples­finx

Flom­mist Veroni­ka Veziro­va, a.k.a. Pur­ples­finx, is an il­lus­tra­tor and graph­ic de­sign­er based in Barcelona. In­spired by cul­ture of all kinds, she writes on top­ics that in­clude art his­to­ry, cre­ativ­i­ty and folk­lore. Her oth­er works in­clude man­ga and psy­che­del­ic po­et­ry. Copy­right © 2022 Veroni­ka Vezirova.

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