Kandinsky's Argument

Define an art issue and describe different points of view.
“The more frightening the world becomes...the more art becomes abstract.”
Wassily Kandinsky believed that creativity is constantly changing and evolving according to political and social climate. He thought that the more obscure and complex reality becomes, so too does art - Art reflects the restlessness of the times. During Kandinsky’s lifetime, modernity everywhere was advancing constantly. Unresolved problems emerged as reality failed to exhaust the questions of life. The new 20th century man discovered a contradictory alter ego that would later be the subject for psychoanalysis. ‘Kandinsky was increasingly convinced that nature and extreme forms represented an obstacle in the
path of the elevation of the human spirit. Forms had therefore to be eliminated, to allow the spirit to reach the perfect liberty of the form of life, which continually feeds the imagination with sounds and colours.’ (Paola Rapelli, 1999).
He wrote in Concerning the Spiritual in art, “Our soul is reawakening from a long period of materialism...but is still a prey to nightmare...which arises from the lack of any faith.” The theory of theosophy, which Kandinsky followed closely, supports this opinion, as do the views of the artists Alexei von Jawlensky and also Kandinsky’s philosophical writings in Concerning the Spiritual in Art.
‘In theosophy it was believed that all life is directed towards evolution, and the goal of art is to give expression to this principle... From Theosophy [he] also derived the idea that progress towards ultimate revelation comes through the balance and reconciliation of opposing forces and that this reconciliation may have to be achieved
through the destruction of any principle or belief that is too dominant.’ (John Golding, 2000). Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, saw religion and art as being on parallel paths and acknowledged that the aim of both was to exceed matter and form. Mondrian said in the new plastic in painting ‘art – although an end in itself, like religion – is the means through which we can know the universal...” The new art is the old art free of all oppression...in this way art becomes religion. This theory agrees strongly with Kandinsky’s own views, as it establishes that art should be a highly spiritual process. The human spirit cannot reach its full potential unless forms are broken down or discarded, giving way to abstraction – which he saw as in harmony with spirituality and religion. Kandinsky held the opinion that as the world becomes more advanced and complex, so too must art. He believed that artists should now be striving to unite art and religion by increasingly turning to abstraction. During Kandinsky’s lifetime, the world was often in much political and social turmoil, with disasters like the Russian Revolution, and two devastating World Wars. Art could not help but reflect this climate – as society became more obscure and complex, the more artists sought to escape into the world of abstraction, where they could reflect their inner emotions rather than the outer realities.
In Alexej von Jawlensky’s memoirs, in 1938 he wrote “I knew that I must paint not what I saw, but only what was in me, in my soul. Figuratively speaking, it was like this: In my heart I felt as if there were an organ, which I had to sound. And nature, which I saw before me, only prompted me. And that was a key that unlocked this organ and made it sound… …They are songs without words.” Von Jawlensky shared many similar views and philosophies to Kandinsky when it came to abstraction. He too believed in the relationship between sound and colour, greatly inspired by colour theory. ‘Kandinsky...entered a world of purely instrumental music, and the observation of this process of liberation fascinates our minds to this very day’ (Mikhail Guerman, 1998). At the age of 30, Kandinsky began to study life drawing and sketching in Munich under Jawlensky. Although preferring to paint abstract landscapes and portraits, his teacher was concerned with colour above all else. Also with the ability to visualise sound, Jawlensky painted in bright, vibrant colours, with thick black contour lines and rhythmic brushstrokes. He saw the need to achieve a higher reality through abstraction, by conveying spiritual emotions on the canvas in favour of impressions of nature. ‘The phase of Realist culture was over, and attention was turned to the discovery of a dimension parallel to reality, where thousands of possible forms of human expression can be found – a dimension that the eye cannot see but the mind can grasp. The debt to philosophy and science was undeniable: psychology, psychiatry, optics and physics were the main disciplines involved in the dynamics of this unrivalled cultural change’ (Paola Rapelli, 1999). ‘In Kandinsky’s First Abstract Watercolour, 1913, the artist produced a controlled composition, in which colours and forms launch their own vital messages to the observer.
Naturalistic objectivity no longer had any value for him. He reinvented natural physiology, applying intuition to pictorial language, so that “people could perceive the spiritual in things’ (Guerman, 1998). “After the period of materialist effort, which held the soul in check until it was shaken off by evil, the soul is emerging; purged by trials and suffering...he will endeavour to awaken subtler emotions...Noticing change in our societal or cultural ground conditions indicate the presence of a new message, that is, the effects of a new medium. Veiled in obscurity are the causes of this need to move ever upwards and forwards, by sweat of the brow, through sufferings and fears...We have before us the age of conscious creation, and this new spirit in painting is going hand in hand with the spirit of thought towards an epoch of great spiritual leaders.” In the writings of Concerning the Spiritual Art, Kandinsky explains the need to move closer towards abstraction, which would in turn bring the artist closer to spirituality. ‘Kandinsky renounced illusion, and therefore, drew closer to a higher reality’ (Guerman, 1998). Part of this abstraction was what he called the ‘inner necessity’. For Kandinsky, this meant that the artwork is born from the artist in a mystic and inscrutable way, becoming an autonomous or
independent subject, animated by a spiritual rather than aesthetic beauty.
The views of theosophy, along with the writings of Alexej von Jawlensky and Wassily Kandinsky, support the view that “the more frightening the world becomes, the more art becomes abstract”. Kandinsky believed that art was always changing depending on social and political climates, and that man was turning to a higher, inner reality as the world became more obscure. He strived to unite religion and art, believing that abstraction was the only way to achieve this. Art was breaking free from a Realist culture, and now sought to achieve a new spiritual form of human expression – in the form of abstraction.

Evaluation: Kandinsky believed creativity is constantly changing and evolving according to political and social climate. He thought that the more obscure and complex reality becomes, so too does art - Art reflects the restlessness of the times. Theosophy saw religion and art as being on parallel paths and acknowledged that the aim of both was to exceed matter and form. It establishes that art should be a highly spiritual process. Kandinsky held the opinion that as the world becomes more advanced and complex, so too must art. He believed that artists should now be striving to unite art and religion by increasingly turning to abstraction. Jawlensky saw the need to achieve a higher reality through abstraction, by conveying spiritual emotions on the canvas in favour of impressions of nature. In the writings of Concerning the Spiritual Art, Kandinsky explains the need to move closer towards abstraction, which would in turn bring the artist closer to spirituality. For Kandinsky, this meant that the artwork is born from the artist in a mystic and inscrutable way, becoming an autonomous or independent subject, animated by a spiritual rather than aesthetic beauty.