The Aesthetic Theories of Wassily Kandinsky and Their Relationship to the Origin of NonObjective Painting Author(s): Peter Selz Reviewed work(s): Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Jun., 1957), pp. 127-136 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3047696 . Accessed: 04/01/2012 00:43 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
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THE AESTHETIC THEORIES OF WASSILY KANDINSKY AND THEIR ORIGIN
RELATIONSHIP
OF NON-OBJECTIVE
TO THE PAINTING*
PETER SELZ
AT
a timewhen so much paintingis in the non-objective vein,it seems relevant to investigate the aesthetictheories of the artist who was the first championof non-objectiveart, or "concreteart,"• as he preferred to call it. It is possible that non-objectivepaintings may have been painted prior to Kandinsky'sfirst non-objectivewatercolor(Fig. I) of 19io and his more ambitiousImpressions,Improvisations, and Compositionsof 1911. There are abstractionsby Arthur Dove, for example, which are dated 19I. Picabiaand Kupkabegan workingin a non-objectiveidiom not much later,2 and Delaunay painted his non-objectiveColor Disks in I9I2.mIn GermanyAdolf Hoelzel ventured into nonobjective painting as early as I9Io, but whereasfor Hoelzel it was merely experimentin additional possibilities,Kandinskymade non-objectivitythe very foundationof his pictorialimagery.' Kandinskyformulated his ideas of non-objectivepainting over an extended period of time. Notes for his essay, Concerningthe Spiritualin Art,"date backto 1901 while the book was completed in I9Io. His thoughts were continuedin his essay "Ober die Formfrage"for the famous almanacDer blaue Reiter."Both essayswere first publishedin 1912.' These essays are to a considerable extent based on previous aesthetic theory and were very much in keeping with the avant-gardethinkingof the prewaryears. They also constitutealmost a programmaticmanifesto for the expressionistgeneration.s * This article is based on a chapter of the author's forthcoming book, German ExpressionistPainting, now in publication at the University of California Press. It was originally a part of a doctoral dissertation,"GermanExpressionistPainting from Its Inception to the First World War," University of Chicago, 1954. The author wishes to acknowledgehis debt particularly to Drs. Ulrich Middeldorf and Joshua Taylor, under whose supervision this dissertationwas prepared. The translationsare by the author unlessotherwiseindicatedin the footnotes. i. Wassily Kandinsky,"Abstraktoder Konkret," Tentoonstelling abstrakteKunst, Amsterdam,Stedelijk Museum, 1938. 2. Kupka'sRed and Blue Disks in the Museumof Modern but it is just possiblethat Art, New York, is dated 1911-1912, this date was added later. 3. GermainBazin in his biographicalnotes to Ren6 Huyge's Les Contemporains,Paris, Editions Pierre Tisne, I949, cites 1914 as the year in which Delaunay did the first non-objective painting in France. This author is able to predatethis by two years, since he has seen Delaunay's Color Disks (Delaunay Studio, Paris), a completely non-objective painting, dated 1912. It remains possible, however, that Picabia did nonobjective paintings in Paris before then. Recently it has been maintainedthat the self-taught Lithuanianartist, M. K. (iurlionis, painted non-objectivepictures between 19o5 and 19 (Aleksis Rannit, "M. K. Ciurlionis," Das Kunstwerk, I, 1946-47, pp. 46-48, and idem, "Un pittore astratto prima di Kandinsky,"La Biennale, vIIi, I952, no. 8). Ciurlionis' work is now in the (iurlionis Gallery in Kaunas. The repro-
ductionsincluded in Mr. Rannit's articles on eiurlionis, however, are highly symbolic abstractions,verging on the fantastic art of Kubin, Redon, or some Surrealists. 4. Hans Hildebrandt,Adolph Hoelzel, Stuttgart,W. Kohlhammer [1952], p. 14. 5. Kandinsky,Concerningthe Spiritual in Art, New York, Wittenborn, Schultz, 1947. This book was first published by Piper in Munich as Ober das Geistige in der Kunst in 1912. The first English translation was undertaken by Michael Sadleir under the title The Art of Spiritual Harmony (London, 1914). The firstAmericanedition, called On the Spiritual in Art, appearedin 1946 (New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation). The 1947 edition, authorized by Mme. Kandinsky and translatedby Francis Golffing, Michael Harrison and FerdinandOstertag, will be used here because it is much closer to the original text. 6. Kandinsky and Franz Marc (eds.), Der blaue Reiter, Munich, R. Piper and Co., 1912. 7. In 1926 Kandinskypublishedhis most systematictreatise, Punkt und Linie zur Book, ix, Munich, Fliiche (Bauhaus Albert Langen Verlag, 1926). This book, translated as Point and Line to Plane by Howard Dearstyne and Hilla Rebay (New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1x947), was written at the Bauhausand elucidatesmost clearly Kandinsky'sthinking during this later period. It falls, however, beyond the realm of discussionin this study. 8. "If Der blaue Reiter, published by R. Piper, is taken together with Kandinsky'sDas Geistige in der Kunst, as a unity, then this double volume is just as much the book of
12. Venus, Netherlandish woodcut, xv cent.
13. Saturn, Netherlandish woodcut, xv cent.
14. Illustration to Chapter 6x (Of Dancing) from Brant's Narrenschiff, Basel, 1494
i. Wassily Kandinsky, First Non-Objective Watercolor (I 9Io) Paris, Collection of Mme Nina Kandinsky
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Kandinsky'sparticulardidacticstyle makes his writingsdifficultto read and analyze. Kenneth Lindsayin his studyof Kandinsky'stheoriesdescribedKandinsky'speculiarliterarystyle as follows: "Characteristic of Kandinsky'swritingis the techniqueof breakingup the given topicinto opposites or alternatives.These opposites or alternativesusually follow directly after the posing of the problem and are numbered.Often they suggest further sets of oppositesand alternatives.The sequenceof thought is flexible, sometimesabruptand cross-tracking,and frequently associative. The dominatingrelativity of the thought processcontrastsstrongly with the conclusions,which are often positively stated."' THE REJECTION OFMATERIAL REALITY Kandinskywas always strongly predisposedtoward sense impressions.In his autobiography he indicatesthat he experiencedobjects, events, even music primarilyin terms of color, and he did not conceiveof color in its physical and material aspectsbut rather in its emotional effect. During his scientificstudies he lost faith in the rational scientificmethod and felt that reality could be fully comprehendedonly by means of creativeintuition. Kandinskywas not alone in his rejection of positivism and pragmatismat the turn of the century.Generally it might be said that "the twentieth centuryhas in its first third taken up a positionof reactionagainstclassicrationalismand intellectualism."'" Even in the pure sciencesthe value of the intuitive as against the purely experimentalwas stressedduring the early part of the twentiethcentury,so that by 1925 Werner Heisenberg was able to formulate the "Principleof Uncertainty,"stating that there is a limit to the precision with which we can observenaturescientifically.This did not mean a returnto metaphysics,but it indicatedthe inherent limitationsof quantitativeobservation. Kandinsky'sdoubt of the ultimate possibilitiesof quantitativeanalysis was shared by many philosophersalso. His philosophy finds perhaps its closest parallel in the thinking of Henri Bergson, who taught that true reality can be grasped only through artistic intuition, which he contrastedto intellectualconception.The intellect, accordingto Bergson,is man'stool for rational action,but "art, whether it be paintingor sculpture,poetry or music, has no other object than to brush aside the utilitariansymbols, the conventionaland socially acceptedgeneralities,in short, everythingthat veils reality from us, in order to bring us face to face with reality itself."" Similarly Kandinskyturns away from the representationof visible objects in his attempt to penetratebeneath the epidermisof appearancesto the ultimate or "inner"reality." As early as his first encounterin Moscow with the paintings by Monet, Kandinskyfelt that the material objectwas not a necessaryelement in his painting:"I had the impressionthat here paintingitself the prewar years as Hildebrandt's Problem der Form was the book of the turn of the century. The separation of the two generations is already made clear in the title, which emphasizes form in the one and spirit in the other." Hans Hildebrandt, Die Kunst des g9. und 2o. Jahrhunderts (Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaft), Potsdam-Wildpark, 1924, p. 382. 9. Kenneth Lindsay, "An Examination of the Fundamental Theories of Wassily Kandinsky," unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1951. Dr. Lindsay establishes incisive relationships between Kandinsky's theories and his paintings. While doing research in Kandinsky's studio in Neuilly-sur-Seine during the spring of I95o, I had adequate opportunity to compare my interpretations with those of Lindsay, which has led to a fruitful exchange of ideas. In a good many instances our interpretations differ, especially as to the placing of emphasis. I am also indebted to Dr. Klaus Brisch for many provocative ideas on Kandinsky. I unfortunately have not been able to see Brisch's doctoral dissertation, "Wassily Kandinsky: Untersuchung zur Entstehung der gegenstandslosen Malerei,"
University of Bonn, '955. io. Thomas Mann, The Living Thoughts of Schopenhauer, New York, Longmans Green and Co., 1929, p. 29. ix . Henri Bergson, Laughter, New York, Macmillan, 19 1, p. 157. 12. Very much the same idea is expressed by Franz Marc: "I am beginning more and more to see behind or, to put it better, through things, to see behind them something which they conceal, for the most part cunningly, with their outward appearance by hoodwinking man with a fagade which is quite different from what it actually covers. Of course, from the The scientific point of view of physics this is an old story.... interpretation has powerfully transformed the human mind; it has caused the greatest type-change we have so far lived to see. Art is indisputably pursuing the same course, in its own way, certainly; and the problem, our problem, is to discover the way." (Franz Marc, diary entry, Christmas 19I4, in Peter Thoene [pseud.], Modern German Art, Harmondsworth, Pelican Books, 1938.)
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comesinto the foreground;I wonderedif it would not be possibleto go further in this direction. From then on I looked at the art of ikons with differenteyes; it meant that I had 'got eyes' for the abstractin art.""'Later he wrote:"The impossibilityand, in art, the purposelessnessof copying an object, the desire to make the object express itself, are the beginnings of leading the artist away from 'literary'color to artistic,i.e. pictorialaims."" Agreeing with earlierwriterssuch as the symbolists,Van de Velde, and Endell, Kandinskyfelt that art must expressthe spiritbut that in order to accomplishthis task it must be dematerialized. Of necessity,this meant creatinga new art form.
It was not only for philosophicreasonsthat Kandinskywishedto forsakeobjectivereality. reasons,it seems,also playedtheirpart.Speakingabouthis periodof studyat the Psychological MunichArt Academy,he wrote:"Thenakedbody,its linesandmovement,sometimesinterested me, but often merelyrepelledme. Someposesin particularwere repugnantto me, and I had to forcemyselfto copythem.I couldbreathefreelyonlywhenI wasout of the studiodoorandin the streetonceagain."'1 It is significantthat the humanbody,whichis foundas an almostuniversalmotif in the art formsof mostcultures,is here eschewedas subjectmatter.' It is true that the art of the west emphasizedthe nonhumanaspectsduringthe nineteenthcentury,when paintersturnedtheir attentionto still life andlandscape.The conscious rejectionof the humanform,however,is cerof the reasonsfor this tainly psychologically significant.Indeed a psychologicalinterpretation us of the non-objective artistand his work. responsemightgive a moreprofoundunderstanding Fromthepointof viewof the historyof aesthetics it is alsointerestingthatKandinsky's rejection of the formsof natureoccurredat approximately the sametime as Worringer'spublication, Ab-
stractionand Empathy. Here Worringersubmitsthe theory that the causefor abstractionis man's wish to withdrawfrom the world or his antagonismtowardit. The lifeless form of a pyramidor the suppressionof space in Byzantine mosaicsclearly shows that what motivated the creation of these worksof art was a need for refuge from the vast confusionof the objectworld--the desire for "a resting-placein the flight of thesis of abstractionas one of phenomena."'•Worringer's the basesof artisticcreationprecededKandinsky'sfirst non-objectivepaintingby abouttwo years, and it is importantto keep in mind that the two men knew each other in Munich during this criticalperiod. Kandinsky himself maintainedthat the immediate cause of his first essay at non-objective painting was the shock of suddenly entering his studio to see one of his paintingslying on its side on the easel and being struckwith its unusual beauty. This incident, he believed, made it clear to him that the representationof nature was superfluousin his art." The emphasison the element of distancein the aestheticexperiencefound a parallel in the theoriesof the contemporary 13. Kandinsky, "Notebooks," quoted in Nina Kandinsky, "Some Notes on the Development of Kandinsky'sPainting," in Kandinsky,Concerningthe Spiritual in Art, p. Io. 14. Kandinsky, Concerningthe Spiritual in Art, p. 48. iS. Kandinsky, "Text Artista," Wassily Kandinsky Memorial, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1945, p. 65 (hereafter cited as "Text Artista"). This is Kandinsky's autobiography,written in 1913 and first published under the title Riickblickeby Der Sturm in Berlin in the same
year.
In this respectKandinskyand Marc differeddecidedly from their associatein the Blaue Reiter, Paul Klee, who was always concerned with creating symbols to interpret man and the forces of nature: "The naked body is an altogether suitable object. In art classes I have gradually learned something of it from every angle. But now I will no longer project some plan of it, but will proceedso that all its essentials,even those hidden by optical perspective,will appearupon the paper. And thus a little uncontestedpersonal property has already been discovered,a style has been created." (Paul Klee, June, 1902, "Extractsfrom the Journal of the Artist," in Margaret Miller [ed.], Paul Klee, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 2945, pp. 8-9.) 17. Wilhelm Worringer,Abstraktionund Einfiihlung, Mu-
16. Franz Marc, turning toward non-objective painting shortly before his death, gave a very similar reason: "Very early in life I found man ugly; the animal seemedto me more beautiful and cleaner, but even in it I discoveredso much that was repelling and ugly that my art instinctively and by nich: R. Piper and Co., 1948, p. 29. First published Munich, inner force became more schematic and abstract." (Marc, 19o8. English edition: Abstraction and Empathy, London:
letter, April 12, 1915, in Briefe, Aufzeichnungen und A4horismen, Berlin, 192o, II, p. 50o.)
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953.
18. Kandinsky, "Text Artista," p. 6x.
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English psychologist,EdwardBullough: "The suddenview of things from their reverse, usually unnoticed,side, comesupon us as a revelation,and such revelationsare preciselythose of art."'" Kandinskyfelt, however,that he could not immediatelyturn to "absolutepainting."In a letter to Hilla Rebay,"'he pointedout that at that time he was still alone in the realizationthat painting ultimatelymust discardthe object.A long struggle for increasingabstractionfrom naturewas still necessary.In 19Io he was still writing: "Purely abstractforms are in the reach of few artists at present;they are too indefinitefor the artist.It seems to him that to limit himself to the indefinite would be to lose possibilities,to excludethe humanand thereforeto weakenexpression."21 But he wasalreadypointingout at that time that the abstractidea was constantlygainingground, that the choice of subjects must originate from the inner necessity of the artist; material, or objective,form may be more or less superfluous.He insiststhat the artistmust be given complete freedom to express himself in any way that is necessaryaccordingto the "principleof inner necessity."He looked hopefully to the future where the eventual predominanceof the abstract would be inevitablein the "epoch of great spirituality.""22 In 191o Kandinskypaintedhis firstabstractpainting,a watercolor. The firstlarge non-objective oil dates from 1911I, and throughout 1912 he did both "objective" and "concrete" paintings. After
r912 there were very few "objective"works. His art had become completely free from nature and like music its meaningwas now meant to be inherentin the work itself and independentof external objects. Kandinskydistinguishedwhat he called "objective"art from "concrete"art by distinguishing betweenthe meanschosenby the artist. In "objective"art both artisticand naturalelements are used, resultingin "mixedart,"while in "concrete"art exclusivelyartisticmeansare used, resulting in "pureart."28In a short article,publishedin 1935, he gave a lucid example of this distinction: "There is an essentialdifferencebetweena line and a fish. And that is that the fish can swim, can eat and be eaten. It has the capacitiesof which the line is deprived. These capacitiesof the fish are necessaryextras for the fish itself and for the kitchen,but not for the painting.And so, not being necessarythey are superfluous.That is why I like the line better than the fish-at least in my painting."2' The element of representationis thus rejected by Kandinskyfor his art. He insists that a picture's quality lies in what is usually called form: its lines, shapes, colors, planes, etc., without referenceto anythingoutsideof the canvas.But here occursan apparentcontradictionin Kandinsky's theory,becausehe-like expressionistsin general-did not believe that a picturemust be evaluated from its formal aspects.Kandinskyand the expressionistsdid not agree with "formalists"like Roger Fry, who believe that the aestheticemotion is essentially an emotion about form. Seeing Kandinsky's first abstractions, Fry concerned himself only with their form: ". .. one finds that
... the improvisationsbecome more definite, more logical and more closely knit in structure, more surprisinglybeautiful in their color oppositions,more exact in their equilibrium."25 Kandinskyhimself takes strong issue with this theory. In his aestheticsthe formal aspect of a work of art is as unimportantas its representationalquality. THE INSIGNIFICANCE OF FORM
Form, to Kandinsky,is nothing but the outwardexpressionof the artist's inner needs. Form is matter,and the artistis involved in a constantstruggle againstmaterialism.Kandinsky'swords 19. Edward Bullough, "Psychical Distance as a Factor in Art and an Aesthetic Principle," British Journal of Psychology, v, 1912, pp. 87-x18. 20. Kandinsky, letter to Hilla Rebay, January 1937, Wassily Kandinsky Memorial, p. 98. 21. Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, p. 48. 22. ibid., p. 77.
23. Kandinsky, "Abstrakte Kunst," Cicerone, xvII, 1925, pp. 639-647. 24. Kandinsky, "Line and Fish," Axis, II, 1935, p. 6. 25. Roger Fry in The Nation, August 2, 1913, quoted in Arthur J. Eddy, Cubists and Post-Impressionism, Chicago, A. C. McClurg and Co., x9x4, p. 117.
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are reminiscentof mediaeval thought when he says: "It is the spirit that rules over matter, and not the other way around.""26 The artist should not seek salvationin form, Kandinskywarns in his essay, "Ober die Formfrage," becauseform is only an expressionof contentand is entirely dependenton the innermost spirit. It is this spirit which choosesform from the storehouseof matter, and it always chooses the form most expressiveof itself. Content always createsits own appropriateform. And form may be chosenfrom anywherebetweenthe two extremepoles: the great abstractionand the great realism.Kandinskythen proceedsto prove that these opposites,the abstractand the realistic,are actually identical,and that form is therefore an insignificantconcernto the artist. This he does as follows: In the "great realism" (as exemplified in the art of Henri Rousseau) the external-artificial element of paintingis discarded,and the content,the inner feeling of the object, is broughtforth primitivelyand "purely"throughthe representationof the simple, rough object. Artisticpurpose is expresseddirectly since the painting is not burdenedwith formal problems. The content is now strongestbecauseit is divested of externaland academicconceptsof beauty. Kandinskypreferred this "great realism," also found in children's drawings, to the use of distortion, which he felt always arousedliterary associations. Since the "great abstraction"excludes"real" objects,the content is embodiedin non-objective form. Thus the "inner sound" of the picture is most clearly manifest. The scaffolding of the object has been removed, as in realismthe scaffoldingof beautyhas been discarded.In both cases we arrive at the spiritual content itself. "The greatest external differentiationbecomes the greatest internal identity: = Abstraction Realism Abstraction = Realism"27"'
The hypothesisthat the minimum of abstractioncan have the most abstracteffect, and vice versa, is based by Kandinskyon the postulationthat a quantitativedecrease can be equal to a qualitativeincrease:2 plus I canbe less than 2 minus I in aesthetics.A dot of color, for example, may lose in its effect of intensityif its actual intensity is increased.""The pragmaticfunction of a form and its sentientmeaningare dissimilar,yet abstractionand realism are identical. Kandinskycites several examples to prove this thesis. A hyphen, for instance,is of practical value and significancein its context.If this hyphen is taken out of its practical-purposeful context and put on canvas,and if it is not used there to fulfill any practicalpurposeat all--such as the delineation of an object-it then becomes nothing but a line; it is completely liberated from significationand abstractedfrom all its meaningas a syntacticalsign; it is the abstractline itself. At the same time, however, it has also become most real, because now it is no longer a sign but
the real line, the object itself. It may be argued that Kandinskyuses a very narrowdefinitionof both the abstractand the realistic,and that the line may be a great deal more realisticand more meaningfulas a sign, such as a hyphen, in its context, than it is as a line only. It is a valid objectionto say that this identity of the abstractand the real holds true only in this verbal analogy, and that Kandinskyhas not presentedlogical proof. Kandinsky,however, was not concernedwith the correctnessof intellectual thought, or with the proof of his spiritual values. He admits: "I have always turned to reason and intellect least of all.')29 He concludeshis analysis of form by saying: "In principle there is no problem of form."30 The artistwho expresses his "soul vibrations"canuse any form he wants.Formal rules in aesthetics 26. Kandinsky, "Text Artista," p. 64. 27. Kandinsky, "Ober die Formfrage," Der blaue Reiter,
p. 85. 28. ibid., p. 84.
29. Kandinsky,"Text Artista," p. 71.
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are not only impossiblebut a great stumblingblock to the free expressionof spiritualvalue. It is the duty of the artist to fight againstthem to clear the way for free expression.Often in the history of art, artists were bogged down by matter and could not see beyond the formal. The nineteenthcenturywas such a period, in which men failed to see the spirit in art as they failed to see it in religion. But to seek art and yet be satisfiedwith form is equivalent to the contentment with the idol in the quest for God. Form is dead unless it is expressiveof content. There cannotbe a symbol without expressivevalue. In his introductionto the second edition of Der blaue Reiter Kandinskystates the aim of the book as "to show by means of examples, practicalarrangementand theoreticalproof, that the problemof form is secondaryin art, that art is above all a matter of content.""' Kandinskyunderstoodhis own time as being the beginning of a new spiritualage when the abstractspirit was taking possessionof the human spirit." Now artistswould increasinglyrecognize the insignificanceof form per se, and realize its relativity, its true meaning as nothing but "the outwardexpressionof inner meaning." ART THE AFFIRMATION
OF THE
SPIRIT
We have seen that in Kandinsky'saestheticsform as well as object, the formal and representational aspectsof art, have no importanceby themselves and are meaningful only insofar as they expressthe artist'sinnermostfeelings. Only through the expressionof the artist'sinner emotion can he transmitunderstandingof true spiritualreality itself. The only "infallible guide" which can carry the artist to "great heights" is the principle of internal necessity (italics his)." This con-
cept of internal necessityis the core and the basis of Kandinsky'saesthetictheory and becomes a highly significantelement in expressionistcriticismin general. The period of spiritual revolution which Kandinskybelieved to be approaching,he called the "spiritual turning point." He perceived indicationsof this period of transition in many culturalmanifestations.In the field of religion,for instance,Theosophywas attemptingto counteract the materialistevil. In the TheosophicalSociety,"one of the most importantspiritualmovements,""man seeks to approachthe problemof the spirit by the way of inner enlightenment.In the realm of literature he cites Maeterlinck as, ".
.
. perhaps one of the first prophets, one of the
firstreportersand clairvoyantsof the decadence... Maeterlinckcreateshis atmosphereprincipally by artistic means. His material machinery . . . really plays a symbolic role and helps to give the inner note .... The apt use of a word (in its poetical sense), its repetition, twice, three times,
or even more frequently,accordingto the need of the poem, will not only tend to intensify the internalstructurebut also bring out unsuspectedspiritualpropertiesin the word itself.""" By using pure sound for the most immediate effect upon the reader or listener, the writer depends on prelanguagesigns, i.e., sounds which-like music-do not depend on language for their meaning.This level of significationis also the basisof Kandinsky'snon-objectivepainting.In musicKandinskypoints to Schanberg'spanchromaticscheme, which advocatesthe full renunciation of functional harmoniousprogressionand traditional form and accepts only those means which lead the composerto the most uncompromisingself-expression:"His music leads us to where musicalexperienceis a matter not of the ear, but of the soul-and from this point begins 30. Kandinsky, "Ober die Formfrage," in Kandinsky and Marc, op.cit., p. 88. 31. Der blaue Reiter (2d ed.), Munich, 1914, p. v. 32. This idea is very similar to Herder's theory of Inspira-
tion: J. G. Herder, Ideen zur Philosophieder Geschichteder Menschkeit, Leipzig, x 82 .
33. Kandinsky,Concerningthe Spiritualin Art, pp. 51-52.
34. ibid., p. 32. Kandinsky himself--as Lindsay has pointed out ("An Examination of the Fundamental Theories of
not a member of Wassily Kandinsky," pp. 208-2x3)--was the Theosophical Society. He admired, however, the cosmology of Mme. Blavatzky which attempted to create a significant synthesis of Indian wisdom and western civilization. The antimaterialistic concepts of the Theosophical movement attracted a good many artists and writers yearning for a new religious spirit during the early part of the century. Besides Kandinsky: Piet Mondrian, Hans Arp, Hugo Ball, William Butler Yeats.
35. Kandinsky,Concerningthe Spiritual in Art, pp. 33-34.
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the music of the future."8"Kandinskyconceivedof music as an emancipatedart, which furthermore had the quality of time-extensionand was most effective in inspiringspiritual emotion in the listener. Painting, while still largely dependent on natural form was showing similar signs of emancipation.Picasso'sbreakdownof volumes and Matisse's free use of color for its own sake were manifestationsof the turningpoint towarda spiritualart." How would the artistachievefull spiritualharmonyin his composition?Kandinskypointed out that the painterhad two basicmeansat his disposal--form and color--and that there was always an unavoidablemutual relationshipbetween them. In his prewarwritingshe still did not come forth with a thoroughanalysisof forms as he did later with his systematicPoint and Line to Plane, yet he was already stating: "Form alone, even though abstractand geometrical,has its internal resonance,a spiritual entity whose properties are identicalwith the form. A triangle... is suchan entity, with its particularspiritualperfume."" But color is the most powerful medium in the hand of the painter.It has a psychicas well as a physical effect upon the observer. It can influencehis tactile, olfactory, and especially aural senses,as well as his visual sense,and in chromotherapyit has been shownthat "red light stimulates and excites the heart, while blue light can cause temporary paralysis.""Color is the artist's means by which he can influencethe human soul. Its meaning is expressed metaphoricallyby Kandinsky:"Color is the keyboard,the eyes are the hammers,the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposively, to cause vibrationsof the soul."'40 Kandinskythen proceedsto develop an elaborateexplanationof the psychic effect of color. This contraststo the more scientificcolor theories of Helmholtz, Rood, Chevreul and Signac and closely approachesthe psychologicalcolor theory of Goethe and metaphysicsof color of Philipp Otto Runge. Like his romanticistpredecessor,Kandinskybelieved that color could directly influencethe humansoul." Blue in Kandinsky'ssystemis the heavenly color; it retreatsfrom the spectator,moving toward its own center. It beckonsto the infinite, arousinga longing for purity and the supersensuous. Light blue is like the sound of the flute, while darkblue has the sound of the cello. Yellow is the color of the earth. It has no profoundmeaning; it seems to spread out from its own center and advanceto the spectatorfrom the canvas.It has the shrill sound of a canaryor of a brasshorn, and is often associatedwith the sour taste of lemon. Green is the mixture of blue and yellow. There the concentricityof blue nullifies the eccentricityof yellow. It is passiveand static,and can be comparedto the so-called "bourgeoisie,"selfsatisfied,fat and healthy. In musicit is best representedby the placid, long-drawnmiddle tones of the violin. White, which was not considereda color by the impressionists,has the spiritualmeaning of a color. It is the symbol of a world void of all material quality and substance.It is the color of beginning.It is the "sound"of the earth duringthe white period of the Ice Age. Black is like eternal silence. It is without hope. It signifies terminationand is therefore the color of mourning. By the symbolic use of colors combined "according to their spiritual significance," the artist can finally achieve a great composition: "Color itself offers contrapuntal possibilities and, when combined with design, may lead to the great pictorial counterpoint, where also painting achieves composition,and where pure art is in the serviceof the divine."42' 36. ibid., 37. ibid., 38...ibid., 39. ibid., 40. ibid.
p. p. p. p.
36. 39. 47. 45.
41. The following remarks about color are taken from "The Language of Form and Color," Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Chap. vI, pp. 45-67.
42. ibid., pp. 51-52.
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Kandinsky'scolor symbolismis in no way basedupon physicallaws of color or the psychology of color vision. He himself pointed out when writing about color that "all these statementsare the results of empiricalfeeling, and are not based on exact science."" This may even explain his own inconsistenciessuch as his statementin Concerningthe Spiritual in Art that "red light stimulates and excites the heart""' contradicted by his assertion that "red ...
has brought about
a state of partialparalysis."" It is also true that specificcolors call forth differentassociationsin people as well as cultures. Specificreactionsto specificcolors have never been proved experimentally.Max Raphael in his book, Von Monet bis Picasso, points out that colors have had altogether different meaningsfor those individualsmost occupiedwith them. Yellow, for example,signifiedthe earth for Leonardo, for Goethe, meant friendlinessto Kant and heavenly splendor to had gay, happy characteristics We might add Van Gogh, suggested the night to Gauguin and aggressivenessto Kandinsky."4 that it symbolizesjealousy in Germanusage, an emotionwhich is associatedwith green in English idiom. Suchexamplescould be increasedad infinitumand it is very doubtfulthat Kandinskyattempted to set down scientificrules for color associations.He was articulatinghis own personalassociations; he stated: "It is clear that all I have said of these simple colors is very provisionaland general, and so are the feelings (joy, grief, etc.) which have been quoted as parallels to the colors. For these feelings are only materialexpressionsof the soul. Shades of color, like those of sound, are of a much finer textureand awakenin the soul emotionstoo fine to be expressedin prose.""' In his secondsignificantbook,Point and Line to Plane, subtitled"A Contributionto the Analysis of the Pictorial Elements," Kandinskypresented his grammar of line, forms, and space in a mannersimilarto his color theory in Concerningthe Spiritualin Art. It is the task of the painter,accordingto Kandinsky,to achievethe maximumeffect by bringing his media,color and form, into orderlyand expressivecomposition.Each art has its own language, and each artist, be he painter,sculptor,architect,writer or composer,must work in his specific medium and bring it to the expression of greatest inner significance.But once painting, for example,is divested of the scaffoldingof naturalform and becomescompletely abstract,the pure law of pictorialconstructioncan be discovered.And then it will be found that pure painting is internallyclosely related to pure musicor pure poetry. SYNTHESIS
OF THE ARTS
Kandinskypoints out that human beings, becauseof individual differences,differ in the type of art expressionto which they are most receptive.For some it is musicalform, for others painting or literature,which causesthe greatest aestheticenjoyment. He also realized that the artist could achieve aestheticeffects in sensory fields not limited to his own medium. He was much interested,for instance,in Scriabin'sexperimentswith sound-colorcombinations.The re-enforcement of one art form with anotherby meansof synaesthesiawill greatly increasethe final aesthetic effectupon the receptor.The greatesteffect can be obtainedby the synthesisof all the arts in one "monumentalart," which is the ultimate end of Kandinsky'saesthetics. Kandinskyhere continuesthe nineteenth century tradition-from Herder to Wagner-with its desire for a union of all arts. Kandinskybelieves that a synthesisof the arts is possiblebecause in the final analysisall artisticmeansare identicalin their inner meaning:ultimately the external differenceswill becomeinsignificantand the internalidentity of all artisticexpressionwill be dis43. ibid., p. 57n. 44. ibid., p. 45. 45. Kandinsky, "Text Artista," p. 75.
46. Max Raphael, Von Monet bis Picasso, Munich, 1x99, p. 102.
47. Kandinsky,Concerningthe Spiritualin Art, p. 63.
THE
AESTHETIC
THEORIES
OF WASSILY
KANDINSKY
135
closed. Each art form causesa certain"complexof soul vibrations."The aim of the synthesisof art forms is the refinementof the soul through the sum-totalof these complexes. and in his "SchematicPlan of Studies and Work of In his essay "Ober Biihnenkomposition"48 the Institute of Art Culture,""Kandinskyoutlines the possiblesteps to be taken for the achievement of "monumentalart." Present-daydrama,opera,ballet are criticizedas much as the plastic arts. By discardingexternal factors in "stage composition,""5 particularlythe factors of plot, externalrelationship,and externalunity, a greaterinternalunity can be achieved.Kandinskythen experimentswith such a composition,"Der gelbe Klang.""'There he attemptsto combinemusic, the movementof dancersand of objects,the sound of the humanvoice (without being tied down to word or language meanings), and the effect of color-tone, as experimentedwith by Scriabin. Kandinskyadmits that his "stage composition"is weak but believes the principleto be valid. It is necessaryto remember,he maintains,that we are still at the very beginning of the great abstractperiodin art. Materialismstill has its graspon modernactivityand is not as yet completely vanquished.But the new, "the spiritualin art," alreadymanifestsitself in most fields of creativity. Kandinskymade his first attemptat the realizationof a synthesisof the arts when he proposed and founded the Institute of Art Culture in Moscow in 192o, a comprehensiveinstitute for the study and development of the arts and sciences.Kandinskywas active in this organizationas vice-presidentfor about a year; then political pressureforced his resignationand he found a similar field of activity in the Bauhausin Weimar, which he joined in 1922. CONCLUSION
Expressionism,which began by shifting emphasisfrom the object to be painted to the artist's own subjective interpretation-reached in Kandinskythe total negation of the object. In this respect he was of great inspirationto succeedingartists. The final phase of expressionismalso becamethe beginningof an altogethernew artisticconcept,non-objectivepainting,and Kandinsky was heraldedas its innovatorby the following generation,even by painterssuch as Diego Rivera working in an altogether different style: "I know of nothing more real than the painting of Kandinsky-nor anythingmore true and nothing more beautiful.A paintingby Kandinskygives no image of earthly life-it is life itself. If one painterdeserves the name 'creator,'it is he. He organizesmatter as matter was organized,otherwisethe Universe would not exist. He opened a window to look inside the All. Someday Kandinskywill be the best known and best loved by men. 52 In his rejectionof the representationalaspectof art, Kandinskycleared the way for new values in art. By experimentingwith the possibilityof an expressive-rather than a formalistic-art in the non-objective idiom, he threw out a challenge which performed a most valuable function in the history of modern art. Through his activity as an aesthetician as well as a painter he was able to write a series of books which fully articulate his ideas and have become as influential in the history of modern painting as his paintings themselves. Kandinsky's aesthetic theory continues, among other things, the precept that the elements of painting-lines and colors and their combinations-evoke emotional associations in the observer. This precept is basic to expressionism, although not original with the expressionist movement.
Much of it is implied in romanticistaestheticsand clearly stated in the theory of empathy. It is set forth differentlyin Paul Signac'stheory of neo-impressionismand occursagain in Bergson's 48. 49. 5o. sky is 5x.
In Kandinsky and Marc, Der blaue Reiter, pp. 103-113. Kandinsky, "Text Artista," pp. 75-87. By "stage composition"--Biihnenkomposition-Kandinreferring to the totality of movement on the stage. Kandinsky, "Der gelbe Klang," in Kandinsky and
Marc, Der blaue Reiter, pp. 119-131. The possibilities of such a synthesis in the film were not yet explored in 1912. 52. Diego Rivera, quoted in "Notes on the Life, Development and Last Years of Kandinsky," in Wassily Kandinsky Memorial, p. Ioo.
136
THE
ART
BULLETIN
Essai sur les donndes immediates de la conscience."It is significantfor an understandingof symbolism and its corollary Jugendstil, and was reiterated by such men as Gauguin, Denis, Sirusier, Walter Crane,and August Endell. Kandinsky'sessays,however, are exceedinglyimportantbecausethey were written by the man who himself was the innovatorof non-objectivepainting.Now in the total absenceof representational objectsthe plasticelementswere to becomesole carriersof the artist'smessage.This probably is why he felt called upon to expressverbally what he had done in his paintingthrough the intuition of "inner necessity." In the analysisof his color theory it was pointed out that no direct parallels can be established between the artist's statement and the observer's response. Both projections rest on highly personal and subjective factors. This, however, does not greatly differ from music. It has, for example,beenshownthat the majorand minormodesareby no meansendowedwith characteristics whichwould call forth identicalreactionsin differentlisteners."A great deal dependson previous experienceand training. As Kandinskyhimself has indicated,prose cannotexpressthe shades of emotion awakenedby sound and color. Each personmay verbalizedifferentlyaboutthe experienceof a work of art and his verbalizationmay be at great variancewith that of the artist. Yet direct communicationcan take place on a primaryvisual (preverbal) level, before either spectatoror artist articulates.It is toward this level of communicationthat the art of Kandinskyand other expressionistswas directed. POMONA COLLEGE 53. Bergson, Essai sur les donnies immidiates de la con- Hopkins University,Baltimore, 1928; quoted in Lindsay,"An Examination of the FundamentalTheories of Wassily Kanscience, Paris, 1904. 54. ChristianP. Heinlein, "The Affective Characteristicsof dinsky," p. 104. the Major and Minor Modes in Music," dissertation,Johns