Concerning The Spiritual In Art (Illustrated)

By Wassily Kandinsky

Introduction and Illustrations by Jeff Carreira

In these pages you will see how one of the greatest artists of the last century describes the role that must be played by artistic visionaries who see beyond the limits of the limitations and blindspots of the times they live in and use their art to illuminate new possibilities. In doing so, these artists are playing a revolutionary function. Artists in this revolutionary function feel compelled to strive for new and higher possibilities and there are always those in any time that hunger for the spiritual food that their art can provide. The artist hears a voice that is inaudible to most and “almost unknowingly the artist follows the call.” That call is felt as a mysterious and “super-sensuous” stirring of the soul. During times of cultural darkness, when the higher possibilities of spirit have been reduced to only a thin and flickering light in the distance, art is the place where the new future will first reveal itself to those who have the eyes to see. “Literature, music and art are the first and most sensitive spheres in which this spiritual revolution makes itself felt.”