Concerning the Spiritual in Art

The theosophy that Kandinsky subscribed to was just one branch of the broader stream of “Spiritualism” that swept intellectual circles in Europe around the turn of the century, largely as a reaction against the dominance of scientific positivism or, for Kandinsky, “materialism.” Accordingly, Kandinsky uses the word “spiritual” to mean everything that is not material or visible, including emotions, ideas, ideals, and spiritual states and experiences. For Kandinsky, art at its fullest development is dedicated to expressing spiritual reality.

Abstract art aims to embody emotions and ideas directly through form and color, rather than representing tangible objects found in the material world. Kandinsky considers the turn to abstraction in painting and other visual arts as emblematic of the modern sensibility. He espouses this approach to art particularly as representing a turn away from the material and external and toward inner, spiritual perception.

A literary and artistic movement at the turn of the 20th century that sought to express the artist’s inner life, feelings, experiences, etc. through the use of symbolic language or images. Kandinsky links symbolism and its associated figures—such as the Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck—with his ideal of a spiritually-oriented art.

Kandinsky’s term for a historical artistic style or tendency that emphasized a stylized or symbolic depiction of things and people, expressing “the inner feeling rather than the outer reality” (xiv). Gothic and Byzantine art and the paintings of Giotto are often included in this category—styles that predated the Renaissance emphasis on realistic depiction. He argues that modern art (e.g., Post-Impressionism) is returning again to these styles for inspiration.

Kandinsky identifies this as the motivating force behind good art, “the impulse felt by the artist for spiritual expression” (26). As outlined more fully in Chapter 6, the inner need consists of the artist’s desire to express something deep inside of them, in the style and language of their time, and serving the cause of art as a whole. For Kandinsky, the inner need—the artist’s personal ideas and feelings—supersedes the need for realistic depiction.

Kandinsky’s ideal principle for artistic creation in the future is discussed in the closing paragraph of the book. It denotes art with a definite and conscious purpose formed after a long maturing process in the mind of the artist; it is expressed in a deliberately and rationally planned composition. Kandinsky contrasts this with Impressionism, which was founded in spontaneous “inspiration.”