Page 205 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Chapter IV
It is important to note that, at the time, the revolutionary ideas expressed in the book entitled Abstraction and Empathy, written by Wilhelm Worringer and published in 1907, were regarded as highly significant by The Blue Rider artists. In his book, Worringer ar- gued that each work of art is an autonomous organism and that abstraction is the prima- ry means by which art could assimilate reality.14 Kandinsky himself wrote prolifically. His three major theoretical accomplishments are: On the Spiritual in Art, first published in 1911, Point, Line to a Plane (1926) and Art and Artists. In May of 1912 the first Blue Rider Almanac was published. It was at this point that Kandinsky assumed the position of a leader of the Munich avant-garde. Although the members of The Blue Rider group were few, the group attained an international scope. Thus, sixteen years after abandoning his law career and immersing himself into the world of painting, Kandinsky’s mission start- ed to acquire a historic dimension.
Kandinsky openly spoke of his appreciation of the primitive arts and their aesthetics. For example, in his book On the Spiritual in Art, he states:
“The similarity of the inner mood of an entire period can lead logically to the use of forms successfully employed to the same ends in an earlier period. Our sympathy, our understanding, our inner feeling for the primitives arose partly in this way. Just like us, those pure artists wanted to capture in their works the inner essence of things, which of itself brought about a rejection of the external, the accidental.”15
Two years later, in 1913, he stated in his Reminiscences:
“My book On the Spiritual in Art, as well as The Blue Rider, in essence aimed to awak- en this, in future absolutely indispensable capability of infinite partaking in the Spiritual through material and abstract means. My desire to develop this blessed capability in Man, capability which he never had, was the end and the Cause of those publications.”16
On the one hand, in his book On the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky analytically instructs
14 For instance, in the very first chapter of Abstraction and Empathy, Worringer states: “Our investigations proceed from the presupposition that the work of art, as an autonomous organism, stands beside nature on equal terms and, in its deepest and innermost essence, devoid of any connection with it, in so far as by nature is understood the visible surface of things. Natural beauty is on no account to be regarded as a condition of the work of art, despite the fact that in the course of evolution it seems to have become a valuable element in the work of art, and to some extent indeed positively identical with it.” See: Wilhelm Worringer, Abstraction and Empathy: A Contribution to the Psychology of Style, trans. Michael Bullock (Chicago: Elephant Paperbacks, 1997), 3.
15 See a translation of this excerpt in: Ulrike Becks-Malorny, Kandinsky (Taschen, 2007), 171.
16 We have translated this excerpt from the Greek translation of Reminiscences. The Greek version of the excerpt reads as follows: «Το βιβλίο μου Περί του Πνευματικού στην Τέχνη καθώς και Ο Γαλάζιος Καβαλάρης αποσκοπούσαν κατά βάση να ξυπνήσουν αυτήν την απολύτως αναγκαία στο μέλλον ικανότητα για άπειρη βίωση του Πνευματικού στα υλικά και τα’ αφηρημένα πράγματα. Η επιθυμία ν’ αναπτύξω αυτήν την ευλογημένην ικανότητα μες στον Άνθρω- πο, ικανότητα που δεν είχε ποτέ, ήταν το τέλος, ο Σκοπός, αυτών των δύο εκδόσεων.» See: Wassily Kandinsky, Ανα- δρομή 1901–1913: Σύντομη Αυτοβιογραφία. Μετάφραση: Γιώργος Κεντρωτής (Εκδόσεις Διάττων, 1988), 65.
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