,,concerning ,,the ,,spiritual ,,in ,,art ,,by ,,wassily ,,kandinsky ,,translated ,,by ,,michael ,t4 ,h4 ,,sadler ,,table ,,of ,,contents ,,list ,,of ,,full-,,page ,,illustrations ,,not ,,in ,e-,,text ,,translator',s ,,introduction ,,part ,i4 ,,about ,,general ,,aesthetic ,i4 ,,introduction ,,ii4 ,,the ,,movement ,,of ,,the ,,triangle ,,iii4 ,,spiritual ,,revolution ,,iv4 ,,the ,,pyramid ,,part ,,ii4 ,,about ,,painting ,v4 ,,the ,,psychological ,,working ,,of ,,colour ,,vi4 ,,the ,,language ,,of ,,form ,,and ,,colour ,,vii4 ,,theory ,,viii4 ,,art ,,and ,,artists ,,ix4 ,,conclusion ,,list ,,of ,,full-,,page ,,illustrations ,,not ,,in ,e-,,text ,mosaic in ,s4 ,vitale1 ,ravenna ,victor and ,heinrich ,dunwegge3 ,the ,crucifixion 7in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich7 ,albrecht ,durer3 ,the ,descent from the ,cross 7in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich7 ,raphael3 ,the ,canigiani ,holy ,family 7in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich7 ,paul ,cezanne3 ,bathing ,women 7by permission of ,messrs4 ,bernheim-,jeune1 ,paris7 ,kandinsky3 ,impression ,no4 #d1 ,moscow 7#aiaa7 ,improvisation ,no4 #bi 7#aiab7 ,composition ,no4 #b 7#aiaj7 ,kleine ,freuden 7#aiac7 ,,translator',s ,,introduction ,it is no common thing to find an artist who1 even if he be willing to try1 is capable of expressing his aims and ideals with any clearness and moderation4 ,some people will say that any such capacity is a flaw in the perfect artist1 who should find his expression in line and colour1 and leave the multitude to grope its way unaided towards comprehension4 ,this attitude is a relic of the days when l'art pour l'art was the latest battle cry2 when eccentricity of manner and irregularity of life were more important than any talent to the would-be artist2 when every one except oneself was bourgeois4 ,the last few years have in some measure removed this absurdity1 by destroying the old convention that it was middle-class to be sane1 and that between the artist and the outer-world yawned a gulf which few could cross4 ,modern artists are beginning to realize their social duties4 ,they are the spiritual teachers of the world1 and for their teaching to have weight1 it must be comprehensible4 ,any attempt1 therefore1 to bring artist and public into sympathy1 to enable the latter to understand the ideals of the former1 should be thoroughly welcome2 and such an attempt is this book of ,kandinsky's4 ,the author is one of the leaders of the new art movement in ,munich4 ,the group of which he is a member includes painters1 poets1 musicians1 dramatists1 critics1 all working to the same end--the expression of the ,,soul of nature and humanity1 or1 as ,kandinsky terms it1 the ,,innerer ,,klang4 ,perhaps the fault of this book of theory--or rather the characteristic most likely to give cause for attack--is the tendency to verbosity4 ,philosophy1 especially in the hands of a writer of ,german1 presents inexhaustible opportunities for vague and grandiloquent language4 ,partly for this reason1 partly from incompetence1 ,i have not primarily attempted to deal with the philosophical basis of ,kandinsky's art4 ,some1 probably1 will find in this aspect of the book its chief interest1 but better service will be done to the author's ideas by leaving them to the reader's judgement than by even the most expert criticism4 ,the power of a book to excite argument is often the best proof of its value1 and my own experience has always been that those new ideas are at once most challenging and most stimulating which come direct from their author1 with no intermediate discussion4 ,the task undertaken in this ,introduction is a humbler but perhaps a more necessary one4 ,england1 throughout her history1 has shown scant respect for sudden spasms of theory4 ,whether in politics1 religion1 or art1 she demands an historical foundation for every belief1 and when such a foundation is not forthcoming she may smile indulgently1 but serious interest is immediately withdrawn4 ,i am keenly anxious that ,kandinsky's art should not suffer this fate4 ,my personal belief in his sincerity and the future of his ideas will go for very little1 but if it can be shown that he is a reasonable development of what we regard as serious art1 that he is no adventurer striving for a momentary notoriety by the strangeness of his beliefs1 then there is a chance that some people at least will give his art fair consideration1 and that1 of these people1 a few will come to love it as1 in my opinion1 it deserves4 ,post-,impressionism1 that vague and much-abused term1 is now almost a household word4 ,that the name of the movement is better known than the names of its chief leaders is a sad misfortune1 largely caused by the over-rapidity of its introduction into ,england4 ,within the space of two short years a mass of artists from ,manet to the most recent of ,cubists were thrust on a public1 who had hardly realized ,impressionism4 ,the inevitable result has been complete mental chaos4 ,the tradition of which true ,post-,impressionism is the modern expression has been kept alive down the ages of ,european art by scattered and1 until lately1 neglected painters4 ,but not since the time of the so-called ,byzantines1 not since the period of which ,giotto and his ,school were the final splendid blossoming1 has the ,symbolist ideal in art held general sway over the ,naturalist4 ,the ,primitive ,italians1 like their predecessors the ,primitive ,greeks1 and1 in turn1 their predecessors the ,egyptians1 sought to express the inner feeling rather than the outer reality4 ,this ideal tended to be lost to sight in the naturalistic revival of the ,renaissance1 which derived its inspiration solely from those periods of ,greek and ,roman art which were pre-occupied with the expression of external reality4 ,although the all-embracing genius of ,michelangelo kept the ,symbolist tradition alive1 it is the work of ,el ,greco that merits the complete title of ,symbolist4 ,from ,el ,greco springs ,goya and the ,spanish influence on ,daumier and ,manet4 ,when it is remembered that1 in the meantime1 ,rembrandt and his contemporaries1 notably ,brouwer1 left their mark on ,french art in the work of ,delacroix1 ,decamps and ,courbet1 the way will be seen clearly open to ,cezanne and ,gauguin4 ,the phrase symbolist tradition is not used to express any conscious affinity between the various generations of artists4 ,as ,kandinsky says3 the relationships in art are not necessarily ones of outward form1 but are founded on inner sympathy of meaning4 ,sometimes1 perhaps frequently1 a similarity of outward form will appear4 ,but in tracing spiritual relationship only inner meaning must be taken into account4 ,there are1 of course1 many people who deny that ,primitive ,art had an inner meaning or1 rather1 that what is called archaic expression was dictated by anything but ignorance of representative methods and defective materials4 ,such people are numbered among the bitterest opponents of ,post-,impressionism1 and indeed it is difficult to see how they could be otherwise4 ,painting1 they say1 which seeks to learn from an age when art was1 however sincere1 incompetent and uneducated1 deliberately rejects the knowledge and skill of centuries4 ,it will be no easy matter to conquer this assumption that ,primitive art is merely untrained ,naturalism1 but until it is conquered there seems little hope for a sympathetic understanding of the symbolist ideal4 ,the task is all the more difficult because of the analogy drawn by friends of the new movement between the neo-primitive vision and that of a child4 ,that the analogy contains a grain of truth does not make it the less mischievous4 ,freshness of vision the child has1 and freshness of vision is an important element in the new movement4 ,but beyond this a parallel is non-existent1 must be non-existent in any art other than pure artificiality4 ,it is one thing to ape ineptitude in technique and another to acquire simplicity of vision4 ,simplicity--or rather discrimination of vision--is the trademark of the true ,post-,impressionist4 ,he ,,observes and then ,,selects what is essential4 ,the result is a logical and very sophisticated synthesis4 ,such a synthesis will find expression in simple and even harsh technique4 ,but the process can only come ,,after the naturalist process and not before it4 ,the child has a direct vision1 because his mind is unencumbered by association and because his power of concentration is unimpaired by a multiplicity of interests4 ,his method of drawing is immature2 its variations from the ordinary result from lack of capacity4 ,two examples will make my meaning clearer4 ,the child draws a landscape4 ,his picture contains one or two objects only from the number before his eyes4 ,these are the objects which strike him as important4 ,so far1 good4 ,but there is no relation between them2 they stand isolated on his paper1 mere lumpish shapes4 ,the ,post-,impressionist1 however1 selects his objects with a view to expressing by their means the whole feeling of the landscape4 ,his choice falls on elements which sum up the whole1 not those which first attract immediate attention4 ,again1 let us take the case of the definitely religious picture4 ,footnote3 ,religion1 in the sense of awe1 is present in all true art4 ,but here ,i use the term in the narrower sense to mean pictures of which the subject is connected with ,christian or other worship4 ,it is not often that children draw religious scenes4 ,more often battles and pageants attract them4 ,but since the revival of the religious picture is so noticeable a factor in the new movement1 since the ,byzantines painted almost entirely religious subjects1 and finally1 since a book of such drawings by a child of twelve has recently been published1 ,i prefer to take them as my example4 ,daphne ,alien's religious drawings have the graceful charm of childhood1 but they are mere childish echoes of conventional prettiness4 ,her talent1 when mature1 will turn to the charming rather than to the vigorous4 ,there could be no greater contrast between such drawing and that of--say--,cimabue4 ,cimabue's ,madonnas are not pretty women1 but huge1 solemn symbols4 ,their heads droop stiffly2 their tenderness is universal4 ,in ,gauguin's ,agony in the ,garden the figure of ,christ is haggard with pain and grief4 ,these artists have filled their pictures with a bitter experience which no child can possibly possess4 ,i repeat1 therefore1 that the analogy between ,post-,impressionism and child-art is a false analogy1 and that for a trained man or woman to paint as a child paints is an impossibility4 ,footnote3 ,i am well aware that this statement is at variance with ,kandinsky1 who has contributed a long article--,uber die ,formfrage--to ,der ,blaue ,reiter1 in which he argues the parallel between ,post-,impressionism and child vision1 as exemplified in the work of ,henri ,rousseau4 ,certainly ,rousseau's vision is childlike4 ,he has had no artistic training and pretends to none4 ,but ,i consider that his art suffers so greatly from his lack of training1 that beyond a sentimental interest it has little to recommend it4 ,all this does not presume to say that the symbolist school of art is necessarily nobler than the naturalist4 ,i am making no comparison1 only a distinction4 ,when the difference in aim is fully realized1 the ,primitives can no longer be condemned as incompetent1 nor the moderns as lunatics1 for such a condemnation is made from a wrong point of view4 ,judgement must be passed1 not on the failure to achieve naturalism but on the failure to express the inner meaning4 ,the brief historical survey attempted above ended with the names of ,cezanne and ,gauguin1 and for the purposes of this ,introduction1 for the purpose1 that is to say1 of tracing the genealogy of the ,cubists and of ,kandinsky1 these two names may be taken to represent the modern expression of the symbolist tradition4 ,the difference between them is subtle but goes very deep4 ,for both the ultimate and internal significance of what they painted counted for more than the significance which is momentary and external4 ,cezanne saw in a tree1 a heap of apples1 a human face1 a group of bathing men or women1 something more abiding than either photography or impressionist painting could present4 ,he painted the treeness of the tree1 as a modern critic has admirably expressed it4 ,but in everything he did he showed the architectural mind of the true ,frenchman4 ,his landscape studies were based on a profound sense of the structure of rocks and hills1 and being structural1 his art depends essentially on reality4 ,though he did not scruple1 and rightly1 to sacrifice accuracy of form to the inner need1 the material of which his art was composed was drawn from the huge stores of actual nature4 ,gauguin has greater solemnity and fire than ,cezanne4 ,his pictures are tragic or passionate poems4 ,he also sacrifices conventional form to inner expression1 but his art tends ever towards the spiritual1 towards that profounder emphasis which cannot be expressed in natural objects nor in words4 ,true his abandonment of representative methods did not lead him to an abandonment of natural terms of expression--that is to say human figures1 trees and animals do appear in his pictures4 ,but that he was much nearer a complete rejection of representation than was ,cezanne is shown by the course followed by their respective disciples4 ,the generation immediately subsequent to ,cezanne1 ,herbin1 ,vlaminck1 ,friesz1 ,marquet1 etc41 do little more than exaggerate ,cezanne's technique1 until there appear the first signs of ,cubism4 ,these are seen very clearly in ,herbin4 ,objects begin to be treated in flat planes4 ,a round vase is represented by a series of planes set one into the other1 which at a distance blend into a curve4 ,this is the first stage4 ,the real plunge into ,cubism was taken by ,picasso1 who1 nurtured on ,cezanne1 carried to its perfectly logical conclusion the master's structural treatment of nature4 ,representation disappears4 ,starting from a single natural object1 ,picasso and the ,cubists produce lines and project angles till their canvases are covered with intricate and often very beautiful series of balanced lines and curves4 ,they persist1 however1 in giving them picture titles which recall the natural object from which their minds first took flight4 ,with ,gauguin the case is different4 ,the generation of his disciples which followed him--,i put it thus to distinguish them from his actual pupils at ,pont ,aven1 ,serusier and the rest--carried the tendency further4 ,one hesitates to mention ,derain1 for his beginnings1 full of vitality and promise1 have given place to a dreary compromise with ,cubism1 without visible future1 and above all without humour4 ,but there is no better example of the development of synthetic symbolism than his first book of woodcuts4 ,footnote3 ,l',enchanteur pourrissant1 par ,guillaume ,apollinaire1 avec illustrations gravees sur bois par ,andre ,derain4 ,paris1 ,kahnweiler1 #aiaj4 ,here is work which keeps the merest semblance of conventional form1 which gives its effect by startling masses of black and white1 by sudden curves1 but more frequently by sudden angles4 ,footnote3 ,the renaissance of the angle in art is an interesting feature of the new movement4 ,not since ,egyptian times has it been used with such noble effect4 ,there is a painting of ,gauguin's at ,hagen1 of a row of ,tahitian women seated on a bench1 that consists entirely of a telling design in ,egyptian angles4 ,cubism is the result of this discovery of the angle1 blended with the influence of ,cezanne4 ,in the process of the gradual abandonment of natural form the angle school is paralleled by the curve school1 which also descends wholly from ,gauguin4 ,the best known representative is ,maurice ,denis4 ,but he has become a slave to sentimentality1 and has been left behind4 ,matisse is the most prominent ,french artist who has followed ,gauguin with curves4 ,in ,germany a group of young men1 who form the ,neue ,kunstlevereinigung in ,munich1 work almost entirely in sweeping curves1 and have reduced natural objects purely to flowing1 decorative units4 ,but while they have followed ,gauguin's lead in abandoning representation both of these two groups of advance are lacking in spiritual meaning4 ,their aim becomes more and more decorative1 with an undercurrent of suggestion of simplified form4 ,anyone who has studied ,gauguin will be aware of the intense spiritual value of his work4 ,the man is a preacher and a psychologist1 universal by his very unorthodoxy1 fundamental because he goes deeper than civilization4 ,in his disciples this great element is wanting4 ,kandinsky has supplied the need4 ,he is not only on the track of an art more purely spiritual than was conceived even by ,gauguin1 but he has achieved the final abandonment of all representative intention4 ,in this way he combines in himself the spiritual and technical tendencies of one great branch of ,post-,impressionism4 ,the question most generally asked about ,kandinsky's art is3 ,what is he trying to do8 ,it is to be hoped that this book will do something towards answering the question4 ,but it will not do everything4 ,this--partly because it is impossible to put into words the whole of ,kandinsky's ideal1 partly because in his anxiety to state his case1 to court criticism1 the author has been tempted to formulate more than is wise4 ,his analysis of colours and their effects on the spectator is not the real basis of his art1 because1 if it were1 one could1 with the help of a scientific manual1 describe one's emotions before his pictures with perfect accuracy4 ,and this is impossible4 ,kandinsky is painting music4 ,that is to say1 he has broken down the barrier between music and painting1 and has isolated the pure emotion which1 for want of a better name1 we call the artistic emotion4 ,anyone who has listened to good music with any enjoyment will admit to an unmistakable but quite indefinable thrill4 ,he will not be able1 with sincerity1 to say that such a passage gave him such visual impressions1 or such a harmony roused in him such emotions4 ,the effect of music is too subtle for words4 ,and the same with this painting of ,kandinsky's4 ,speaking for myself1 to stand in front of some of his drawings or pictures gives a keener and more spiritual pleasure than any other kind of painting4 ,but ,i could not express in the least what gives the pleasure4 ,presumably the lines and colours have the same effect as harmony and rhythm in music have on the truly musical4 ,that psychology comes in no one can deny4 ,many people--perhaps at present the very large majority of people--have their colour-music sense dormant4 ,it has never been exercised4 ,in the same way many people are unmusical--either wholly1 by nature1 or partly1 for lack of experience4 ,even when ,kandinsky's idea is universally understood there may be many who are not moved by his melody4 ,for my part1 something within me answered to ,kandinsky's art the first time ,i met with it4 ,there was no question of looking for representation2 a harmony had been set up1 and that was enough4 ,of course colour-music is no new idea4 ,that is to say attempts have been made to play compositions in colour1 by flashes and harmonies4 ,footnote3 ,cf4 ,colour ,music1 by ,a4 ,wallace ,rimington4 ,hutchinson4 #fs4 net4 ,also music has been interpreted in colour4 ,but ,i do not know of any previous attempt to paint1 without any reference to music1 compositions which shall have on the spectator an effect wholly divorced from representative association4 ,kandinsky refers to attempts to paint in colour-counterpoint4 ,but that is a different matter1 in that it is the borrowing from one art by another of purely technical methods1 without a previous impulse from spiritual sympathy4 ,one is faced then with the conflicting claims of ,picasso and ,kandinsky to the position of true leader of non-representative art4 ,picasso's admirers hail him1 just as this ,introduction hails ,kandinsky1 as a visual musician4 ,the methods and ideas of each rival are so different that the title cannot be accorded to both4 ,in his book1 ,kandinsky states his opinion of ,cubism and its fatal weakness1 and history goes to support his contention4 ,the origin of ,cubism in ,cezanne1 in a structural art that owes its very existence to matter1 makes its claim to pure emotionalism seem untenable4 ,emotions are not composed of strata and conflicting pressures4 ,once abandon reality and the geometrical vision becomes abstract mathematics4 ,it seems to me that ,picasso shares a ,futurist error when he endeavours to harmonize one item of reality--a number1 a button1 a few capital letters--with a surrounding aura of angular projections4 ,there must be a conflict of impressions1 which differ essentially in quality4 ,one trend of modern music is towards realism of sound4 ,children cry1 dogs bark1 plates are broken4 ,picasso approaches the same goal from the opposite direction4 ,it is as though he were trying to work from realism to music4 ,the waste of time is1 to my mind1 equally complete in both cases4 ,the power of music to give expression without the help of representation is its noblest possession4 ,no painting has ever had such a precious power4 ,kandinsky is striving to give it that power1 and prove what is at least the logical analogy between colour and sound1 between line and rhythm of beat4 ,picasso makes little use of colour1 and confines himself only to one series of line effects--those caused by conflicting angles4 ,so his aim is smaller and more limited than ,kandinsky's even if it is as reasonable4 ,but because it has not wholly abandoned realism but uses for the painting of feeling a structural vision dependent for its value on the association of reality1 because in so doing it tries to make the best of two worlds1 there seems little hope for it of redemption in either4 ,as has been said above1 ,picasso and ,kandinsky make an interesting parallel1 in that they have developed the art respectively of ,cezanne and ,gauguin1 in a similar direction4 ,on the decision of ,picasso's failure or success rests the distinction between ,cezanne and ,gauguin1 the realist and the symbolist1 the painter of externals and the painter of religious feeling4 ,unless a spiritual value is accorded to ,cezanne's work1 unless he is believed to be a religious painter 7and religious painters need not paint ,madonnas71 unless in fact he is paralleled closely with ,gauguin1 his follower ,picasso cannot claim to stand1 with ,kandinsky1 as a prophet of an art of spiritual harmony4 ,if ,kandinsky ever attains his ideal--for he is the first to admit that he has not yet reached his goal--if he ever succeeds in finding a common language of colour and line which shall stand alone as the language of sound and beat stands alone1 without recourse to natural form or representation1 he will on all hands be hailed as a great innovator1 as a champion of the freedom of art4 ,until such time1 it is the duty of those to whom his work has spoken1 to bear their testimony4 ,otherwise he may be condemned as one who has invented a shorthand of his own1 and who paints pictures which cannot be understood by those who have not the key of the cipher4 ,in the meantime also it is important that his position should be recognized as a legitimate1 almost inevitable outcome of ,post-,impressionist tendencies4 ,such is the recognition this ,introduction strives to secure4 ,,michael ,t4 ,h4 ,,sadler ,,reference ,those interested in the ideas and work of ,kandinsky and his fellow artists would do well to consult3 ,,der ,,blaue ,,reiter1 vol4 i4 ,piper ,verlag1 ,munich1 #aj mk4 ,this sumptuous volume contains articles by ,kandinsky1 ,franz ,marc1 ,arnold ,schonberg1 etc41 together with some musical texts and numerous reproductions--some in colour--of the work of the primitive mosaicists1 glass-painters1 and sculptors1 as well as of more modern artists from ,greco to ,kandinsky1 ,marc1 and their friends4 ,the choice of illustrations gives an admirable idea of the continuity and steady growth of the new painting1 sculpture1 and music4 ,,klange4 ,by ,wassily ,kandinsky4 ,piper ,verlag1 ,munich1 #cj mk4 ,a most beautifully produced book of prose-poems1 with a large number of illustrations1 many in colour4 ,this is ,kandinsky's most recent work4 ,also the back and current numbers of ,der ,sturm1 a weekly paper published in ,berlin in the defence of the new art4 ,illustrations by ,marc1 ,pechstein1 le ,fauconnier1 ,delaunay1 ,kandinsky1 etc4 ,also poems and critical articles4 ,price per weekly number #be pfg4 ,der ,sturm has in preparation an album of reproductions of pictures and drawings by ,kandinsky4 ,for ,cubism cf4 ,gleizes et ,metzinger1 du ,cubisme1 and ,guillaume ,apollinaire1 ,les ,peintres ,cubistes4 ,collection ,les ,arts4 ,paris1 ,figuiere1 per vol4 #c fr4 #ej c4 ,,dedicated ,,to ,,the ,,memory ,,of ,,elisabeth ,,tichejeff ,,part #a3 ,,about ,,general ,,aesthetic ,i4 ,,introduction ,every work of art is the child of its age and1 in many cases1 the mother of our emotions4 ,it follows that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated4 ,efforts to revive the art-principles of the past will at best produce an art that is still-born4 ,it is impossible for us to live and feel1 as did the ancient ,greeks4 ,in the same way those who strive to follow the ,greek methods in sculpture achieve only a similarity of form1 the work remaining soulless for all time4 ,such imitation is mere aping4 ,externally the monkey completely resembles a human being2 he will sit holding a book in front of his nose1 and turn over the pages with a thoughtful aspect1 but his actions have for him no real meaning4 ,there is1 however1 in art another kind of external similarity which is founded on a fundamental truth4 ,when there is a similarity of inner tendency in the whole moral and spiritual atmosphere1 a similarity of ideals1 at first closely pursued but later lost to sight1 a similarity in the inner feeling of any one period to that of another1 the logical result will be a revival of the external forms which served to express those inner feelings in an earlier age4 ,an example of this today is our sympathy1 our spiritual relationship1 with the ,primitives4 ,like ourselves1 these artists sought to express in their work only internal truths1 renouncing in consequence all consideration of external form4 ,this all-important spark of inner life today is at present only a spark4 ,our minds1 which are even now only just awakening after years of materialism1 are infected with the despair of unbelief1 of lack of purpose and ideal4 ,the nightmare of materialism1 which has turned the life of the universe into an evil1 useless game1 is not yet past2 it holds the awakening soul still in its grip4 ,only a feeble light glimmers like a tiny star in a vast gulf of darkness4 ,this feeble light is but a presentiment1 and the soul1 when it sees it1 trembles in doubt whether the light is not a dream1 and the gulf of darkness reality4 ,this doubt1 and the still harsh tyranny of the materialistic philosophy1 divide our soul sharply from that of the ,primitives4 ,our soul rings cracked when we seek to play upon it1 as does a costly vase1 long buried in the earth1 which is found to have a flaw when it is dug up once more4 ,for this reason1 the ,primitive phase1 through which we are now passing1 with its temporary similarity of form1 can only be of short duration4 ,these two possible resemblances between the art forms of today and those of the past will be at once recognized as diametrically opposed to one another4 ,the first1 being purely external1 has no future4 ,the second1 being internal1 contains the seed of the future within itself4 ,after the period of materialist effort1 which held the soul in check until it was shaken off as evil1 the soul is emerging1 purged by trials and sufferings4 ,shapeless emotions such as fear1 joy1 grief1 etc41 which belonged to this time of effort1 will no longer greatly attract the artist4 ,he will endeavour to awake subtler emotions1 as yet unnamed4 ,living himself a complicated and comparatively subtle life1 his work will give to those observers capable of feeling them lofty emotions beyond the reach of words4 ,the observer of today1 however1 is seldom capable of feeling such emotions4 ,he seeks in a work of art a mere imitation of nature which can serve some definite purpose 7for example a portrait in the ordinary sense7 or a presentment of nature according to a certain convention 7impressionist painting71 or some inner feeling expressed in terms of natural form 7as we say--a picture with ,stimmung7 ,footnote3 ,stimmung is almost untranslateable4 ,it is almost sentiment in the best sense1 and almost feeling4 ,many of ,corot's twilight landscapes are full of a beautiful ,stimmung4 ,kandinsky uses the word later on to mean the essential spirit of nature4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 ,all those varieties of picture1 when they are really art1 fulfil their purpose and feed the spirit4 ,though this applies to the first case1 it applies more strongly to the third1 where the spectator does feel a corresponding thrill in himself4 ,such harmony or even contrast of emotion cannot be superficial or worthless2 indeed the ,stimmung of a picture can deepen and purify that of the spectator4 ,such works of art at least preserve the soul from coarseness2 they key it up1 so to speak1 to a certain height1 as a tuning-key the strings of a musical instrument4 ,but purification1 and extension in duration and size of this sympathy of soul1 remain one-sided1 and the possibilities of the influence of art are not exerted to their utmost4 ,imagine a building divided into many rooms4 ,the building may be large or small4 ,every wall of every room is covered with pictures of various sizes2 perhaps they number many thousands4 ,they represent in colour bits of nature--animals in sunlight or shadow1 drinking1 standing in water1 lying on the grass2 near to1 a ,crucifixion by a painter who does not believe in ,christ2 flowers2 human figures sitting1 standing1 walking2 often they are naked2 many naked women1 seen foreshortened from behind2 apples and silver dishes2 portrait of ,councillor ,so and ,so2 sunset2 lady in red2 flying duck2 portrait of ,lady ,x2 flying geese2 lady in white2 calves in shadow flecked with brilliant yellow sunlight2 portrait of ,prince ,y2 lady in green4 ,all this is carefully printed in a book--name of artist--name of picture4 ,people with these books in their hands go from wall to wall1 turning over pages1 reading the names4 ,then they go away1 neither richer nor poorer than when they came1 and are absorbed at once in their business1 which has nothing to do with art4 ,why did they come8 ,in each picture is a whole lifetime imprisoned1 a whole lifetime of fears1 doubts1 hopes1 and joys4 ,whither is this lifetime tending8 ,what is the message of the competent artist8 ,to send light into the darkness of men's hearts--such is the duty of the artist1 said ,schumann4 ,an artist is a man who can draw and paint everything1 said ,tolstoi4 ,of these two definitions of the artist's activity we must choose the second1 if we think of the exhibition just described4 ,on one canvas is a huddle of objects painted with varying degrees of skill1 virtuosity and vigour1 harshly or smoothly4 ,to harmonize the whole is the task of art4 ,with cold eyes and indifferent mind the spectators regard the work4 ,connoisseurs admire the skill 7as one admires a tightrope walker71 enjoy the quality of painting 7as one enjoys a pasty74 ,but hungry souls go hungry away4 ,the vulgar herd stroll through the rooms and pronounce the pictures nice or splendid4 ,those who could speak have said nothing1 those who could hear have heard nothing4 ,this condition of art is called art for art's sake4 ,this neglect of inner meanings1 which is the life of colours1 this vain squandering of artistic power is called art for art's sake4 ,the artist seeks for material reward for his dexterity1 his power of vision and experience4 ,his purpose becomes the satisfaction of vanity and greed4 ,in place of the steady co-operation of artists is a scramble for good things4 ,there are complaints of excessive competition1 of over-production4 ,hatred1 partisanship1 cliques1 jealousy1 intrigues are the natural consequences of this aimless1 materialist art4 ,footnote3 ,the few solitary exceptions do not destroy the truth of this sad and ominous picture1 and even these exceptions are chiefly believers in the doctrine of art for art's sake4 ,they serve1 therefore1 a higher ideal1 but one which is ultimately a useless waste of their strength4 ,external beauty is one element of a spiritual atmosphere4 ,but beyond this positive fact 7that what is beautiful is good7 it has the weakness of a talent not used to the full4 7,the word talent is employed in the biblical sense47 ,the onlooker turns away from the artist who has higher ideals and who cannot see his life purpose in an art without aims4 ,sympathy is the education of the spectator from the point of view of the artist4 ,it has been said above that art is the child of its age4 ,such an art can only create an artistic feeling which is already clearly felt4 ,this art1 which has no power for the future1 which is only a child of the age and cannot become a mother of the future1 is a barren art4 ,she is transitory and to all intent dies the moment the atmosphere alters which nourished her4 ,the other art1 that which is capable of educating further1 springs equally from contemporary feeling1 but is at the same time not only echo and mirror of it1 but also has a deep and powerful prophetic strength4 ,the spiritual life1 to which art belongs and of which she is one of the mightiest elements1 is a complicated but definite and easily definable movement forwards and upwards4 ,this movement is the movement of experience4 ,it may take different forms1 but it holds at bottom to the same inner thought and purpose4 ,veiled in obscurity are the causes of this need to move ever upwards and forwards1 by sweat of the brow1 through sufferings and fears4 ,when one stage has been accomplished1 and many evil stones cleared from the road1 some unseen and wicked hand scatters new obstacles in the way1 so that the path often seems blocked and totally obliterated4 ,but there never fails to come to the rescue some human being1 like ourselves in everything except that he has in him a secret power of vision4 ,he sees and points the way4 ,the power to do this he would sometimes fain lay aside1 for it is a bitter cross to bear4 ,but he cannot do so4 ,scorned and hated1 he drags after him over the stones the heavy chariot of a divided humanity1 ever forwards and upwards4 ,often1 many years after his body has vanished from the earth1 men try by every means to recreate this body in marble1 iron1 bronze1 or stone1 on an enormous scale4 ,as if there were any intrinsic value in the bodily existence of such divine martyrs and servants of humanity1 who despised the flesh and lived only for the spirit6 ,but at least such setting up of marble is a proof that a great number of men have reached the point where once the being they would now honour1 stood alone4 ,,ii4 ,,the ,,movement ,,of ,,the ,,triangle ,the life of the spirit may be fairly represented in diagram as a large acute-angled triangle divided horizontally into unequal parts with the narrowest segment uppermost4 ,the lower the segment the greater it is in breadth1 depth1 and area4 ,the whole triangle is moving slowly1 almost invisibly forwards and upwards4 ,where the apex was today the second segment is tomorrow2 what today can be understood only by the apex and to the rest of the triangle is an incomprehensible gibberish1 forms tomorrow the true thought and feeling of the second segment4 ,at the apex of the top segment stands often one man1 and only one4 ,his joyful vision cloaks a vast sorrow4 ,even those who are nearest to him in sympathy do not understand him4 ,angrily they abuse him as charlatan or madman4 ,so in his lifetime stood ,beethoven1 solitary and insulted4 ,footnote3 ,weber1 composer of ,der ,freischutz1 said of ,beethoven's ,seventh ,symphony3 ,the extravagances of genius have reached the limit2 ,beethoven is now ripe for an asylum4 ,of the opening phrase1 on a reiterated e1 the ,abbe ,stadler said to his neighbour1 when first he heard it3 ,always that miserable 'e'2 he seems to be deaf to it himself1 the idiot6 ,how many years will it be before a greater segment of the triangle reaches the spot where he once stood alone8 ,despite memorials and statues1 are they really many who have risen to his level8 ,footnote #b3 ,are not many monuments in themselves answers to that question8 ,in every segment of the triangle are artists4 ,each one of them who can see beyond the limits of his segment is a prophet to those about him1 and helps the advance of the obstinate whole4 ,but those who are blind1 or those who retard the movement of the triangle for baser reasons1 are fully understood by their fellows and acclaimed for their genius4 ,the greater the segment 7which is the same as saying the lower it lies in the triangle7 so the greater the number who understand the words of the artist4 ,every segment hungers consciously or1 much more often1 unconsciously for their corresponding spiritual food4 ,this food is offered by the artists1 and for this food the segment immediately below will tomorrow be stretching out eager hands4 ,this simile of the triangle cannot be said to express every aspect of the spiritual life4 ,for instance1 there is never an absolute shadow-side to the picture1 never a piece of unrelieved gloom4 ,even too often it happens that one level of spiritual food suffices for the nourishment of those who are already in a higher segment4 ,but for them this food is poison2 in small quantities it depresses their souls gradually into a lower segment2 in large quantities it hurls them suddenly into the depths ever lower and lower4 ,sienkiewicz1 in one of his novels1 compares the spiritual life to swimming2 for the man who does not strive tirelessly1 who does not fight continually against sinking1 will mentally and morally go under4 ,in this strait a man's talent 7again in the biblical sense7 becomes a curse--and not only the talent of the artist1 but also of those who eat this poisoned food4 ,the artist uses his strength to flatter his lower needs2 in an ostensibly artistic form he presents what is impure1 draws the weaker elements to him1 mixes them with evil1 betrays men and helps them to betray themselves1 while they convince themselves and others that they are spiritually thirsty1 and that from this pure spring they may quench their thirst4 ,such art does not help the forward movement1 but hinders it1 dragging back those who are striving to press onward1 and spreading pestilence abroad4 ,such periods1 during which art has no noble champion1 during which the true spiritual food is wanting1 are periods of retrogression in the spiritual world4 ,ceaselessly souls fall from the higher to the lower segments of the triangle1 and the whole seems motionless1 or even to move down and backwards4 ,men attribute to these blind and dumb periods a special value1 for they judge them by outward results1 thinking only of material well-being4 ,they hail some technical advance1 which can help nothing but the body1 as a great achievement4 ,real spiritual gains are at best under-valued1 at worst entirely ignored4 ,the solitary visionaries are despised or regarded as abnormal and eccentric4 ,those who are not wrapped in lethargy and who feel vague longings for spiritual life and knowledge and progress1 cry in harsh chorus1 without any to comfort them4 ,the night of the spirit falls more and more darkly4 ,deeper becomes the misery of these blind and terrified guides1 and their followers1 tormented and unnerved by fear and doubt1 prefer to this gradual darkening the final sudden leap into the blackness4 ,at such a time art ministers to lower needs1 and is used for material ends4 ,she seeks her substance in hard realities because she knows of nothing nobler4 ,objects1 the reproduction of which is considered her sole aim1 remain monotonously the same4 ,the question what8 disappears from art2 only the question how8 remains4 ,by what method are these material objects to be reproduced8 ,the word becomes a creed4 ,art has lost her soul4 ,in the search for method the artist goes still further4 ,art becomes so specialized as to be comprehensible only to artists1 and they complain bitterly of public indifference to their work4 ,for since the artist in such times has no need to say much1 but only to be notorious for some small originality and consequently lauded by a small group of patrons and connoisseurs 7which incidentally is also a very profitable business for him71 there arise a crowd of gifted and skilful painters1 so easy does the conquest of art appear4 ,in each artistic circle are thousands of such artists1 of whom the majority seek only for some new technical manner1 and who produce millions of works of art without enthusiasm1 with cold hearts and souls asleep4 ,competition arises4 ,the wild battle for success becomes more and more material4 ,small groups who have fought their way to the top of the chaotic world of art and picture-making entrench themselves in the territory they have won4 ,the public1 left far behind1 looks on bewildered1 loses interest and turns away4 ,but despite all this confusion1 this chaos1 this wild hunt for notoriety1 the spiritual triangle1 slowly but surely1 with irresistible strength1 moves onwards and upwards4 ,the invisible ,moses descends from the mountain and sees the dance round the golden calf4 ,but he brings with him fresh stores of wisdom to man4 ,first by the artist is heard his voice1 the voice that is inaudible to the crowd4 ,almost unknowingly the artist follows the call4 ,already in that very question how8 lies a hidden seed of renaissance4 ,for when this how8 remains without any fruitful answer1 there is always a possibility that the same something 7which we call personality today7 may be able to see in the objects about it not only what is purely material but also something less solid2 something less bodily than was seen in the period of realism1 when the universal aim was to reproduce anything as it really is and without fantastic imagination4 ,footnote3 ,frequent use is made here of the terms material and non-material1 and of the intermediate phrases more or less material4 ,is everything material8 or is ,,everything spiritual8 ,can the distinctions we make between matter and spirit be nothing but relative modifications of one or the other8 ,thought which1 although a product of the spirit1 can be defined with positive science1 is matter1 but of fine and not coarse substance4 ,is whatever cannot be touched with the hand1 spiritual8 ,the discussion lies beyond the scope of this little book2 all that matters here is that the boundaries drawn should not be too definite4 ,if the emotional power of the artist can overwhelm the how8 and can give free scope to his finer feelings1 then art is on the crest of the road by which she will not fail later on to find the what she has lost1 the what which will show the way to the spiritual food of the newly awakened spiritual life4 ,this what8 will no longer be the material1 objective what of the former period1 but the internal truth of art1 the soul without which the body 7i4e4 the how7 can never be healthy1 whether in an individual or in a whole people4 ,,this ,,what ,,is ,,the ,,internal ,,truth ,,which ,,only ,,art ,,can ,,divine1 ,,which ,,only ,,art ,,can ,,express ,,by ,,those ,,means ,,of ,,expression ,,which ,,are ,,hers ,,alone4 ,,iii4 ,,spiritual ,,revolution ,the spiritual triangle moves slowly onwards and upwards4 ,today one of the largest of the lower segments has reached the point of using the first battle cry of the materialist creed4 ,the dwellers in this segment group themselves round various banners in religion4 ,they call themselves ,jews1 ,catholics1 ,protestants1 etc4 ,but they are really atheists1 and this a few either of the boldest or the narrowest openly avow4 ,heaven is empty1 ,god is dead4 ,in politics these people are democrats and republicans4 ,the fear1 horror and hatred which yesterday they felt for these political creeds they now direct against anarchism1 of which they know nothing but its much dreaded name4 ,in economics these people are ,socialists4 ,they make sharp the sword of justice with which to slay the hydra of capitalism and to hew off the head of evil4 ,because the inhabitants of this great segment of the triangle have never solved any problem independently1 but are dragged as it were in a cart by those the noblest of their fellowmen who have sacrificed themselves1 they know nothing of the vital impulse of life which they regard always vaguely from a great distance4 ,they rate this impulse lightly1 putting their trust in purposeless theory and in the working of some logical method4 ,the men of the segment next below are dragged slowly higher1 blindly1 by those just described4 ,but they cling to their old position1 full of dread of the unknown and of betrayal4 ,the higher segments are not only blind atheists but can justify their godlessness with strange words2 for example1 those of ,virchow--so unworthy of a learned man--,i have dissected many corpses1 but never yet discovered a soul in any of them4 ,in politics they are generally republican1 with a knowledge of different parliamentary procedures2 they read the political leading articles in the newspapers4 ,in economics they are socialists of various grades1 and can support their principles with numerous quotations1 passing from ,schweitzer's ,,emma via ,lasalle's ,,iron ,,law ,,of ,,wages1 to ,marx's ,,capital1 and still further4 ,in these loftier segments other categories of ideas1 absent in these just described1 begin gradually to appear--science and art1 to which last belong also literature and music4 ,in science these men are positivists1 only recognizing those things that can be weighed and measured4 ,anything beyond that they consider as rather discreditable nonsense1 that same nonsense about which they held yesterday the theories that today are proven4 ,in art they are naturalists1 which means that they recognize and value the personality1 individuality and temperament of the artist up to a certain definite point4 ,this point has been fixed by others1 and in it they believe unflinchingly4 ,but despite their patent and well-ordered security1 despite their infallible principles1 there lurks in these higher segments a hidden fear1 a nervous trembling1 a sense of insecurity4 ,and this is due to their upbringing4 ,they know that the sages1 statesmen and artists whom today they revere1 were yesterday spurned as swindlers and charlatans4 ,and the higher the segment in the triangle1 the better defined is this fear1 this modern sense of insecurity4 ,here and there are people with eyes which can see1 minds which can correlate4 ,they say to themselves3 ,if the science of the day before yesterday is rejected by the people of yesterday1 and that of yesterday by us of today1 is it not possible that what we call science now will be rejected by the men of tomorrow8 ,and the bravest of them answer1 ,it is possible4 ,then people appear who can distinguish those problems that the science of today has not yet explained4 ,and they ask themselves3 ,will science1 if it continues on the road it has followed for so long1 ever attain to the solution of these problems8 ,and if it does so attain1 will men be able to rely on its solution8 ,in these segments are also professional men of learning who can remember the time when facts now recognized by the ,academies as firmly established1 were scorned by those same ,academies4 ,there are also philosophers of aesthetic who write profound books about an art which was yesterday condemned as nonsense4 ,in writing these books they remove the barriers over which art has most recently stepped and set up new ones which are to remain for ever in the places they have chosen4 ,they do not notice that they are busy erecting barriers1 not in front of art1 but behind it4 ,and if they do notice this1 on the morrow they merely write fresh books and hastily set their barriers a little further on4 ,this performance will go on unaltered until it is realized that the most extreme principle of aesthetic can never be of value to the future1 but only to the past4 ,no such theory of principle can be laid down for those things which lie beyond1 in the realm of the immaterial4 ,that which has no material existence cannot be subjected to a material classification4 ,that which belongs to the spirit of the future can only be realized in feeling1 and to this feeling the talent of the artist is the only road4 ,theory is the lamp which sheds light on the petrified ideas of yesterday and of the more distant past4 ,footnote3 ,cf4 ,chapter ,,vii4 ,and as we rise higher in the triangle we find that the uneasiness increases1 as a city built on the most correct architectural plan may be shaken suddenly by the uncontrollable force of nature4 ,humanity is living in such a spiritual city1 subject to these sudden disturbances for which neither architects nor mathematicians have made allowance4 ,in one place lies a great wall crumbled to pieces like a card house1 in another are the ruins of a huge tower which once stretched to heaven1 built on many presumably immortal spiritual pillars4 ,the abandoned churchyard quakes and forgotten graves open and from them rise forgotten ghosts4 ,spots appear on the sun and the sun grows dark1 and what theory can fight with darkness8 ,and in this city live also men deafened by false wisdom who hear no crash1 and blinded by false wisdom1 so that they say our sun will shine more brightly than ever and soon the last spots will disappear4 ,but sometime even these men will hear and see4 ,but when we get still higher there is no longer this bewilderment4 ,there work is going on which boldly attacks those pillars which men have set up4 ,there we find other professional men of learning who test matter again and again1 who tremble before no problem1 and who finally cast doubt on that very matter which was yesterday the foundation of everything1 so that the whole universe is shaken4 ,every day another scientific theory finds bold discoverers who overstep the boundaries of prophecy and1 forgetful of themselves1 join the other soldiers in the conquest of some new summit and in the hopeless attack on some stubborn fortress4 ,but there is no fortress that man cannot overcome4 ,on the one hand1 ,,facts are being established which the science of yesterday dubbed swindles4 ,even newspapers1 which are for the most part the most obsequious servants of worldly success and of the mob1 and which trim their sails to every wind1 find themselves compelled to modify their ironical judgements on the marvels of science and even to abandon them altogether4 ,various learned men1 among them ultra-materialists1 dedicate their strength to the scientific research of doubtful problems1 which can no longer be lied about or passed over in silence4 ,footnote3 ,zoller1 ,wagner1 ,butleroff 7,st4 ,petersburg71 ,crookes 7,london71 etc42 later on1 ,c4 ,h4 ,richet1 ,c4 ,flammarion4 ,the ,parisian paper ,le ,matin1 published about two years ago the discoveries of the two last named under the title ,je le constate1 mais je ne l'explique pas4 ,finally there are ,c4 ,lombroso1 the inventor of the anthropological method of diagnosing crime1 and ,eusapio ,palladino4 ,on the other hand1 the number is increasing of those men who put no trust in the methods of materialistic science when it deals with those questions which have to do with non-matter1 or matter which is not accessible to our minds4 ,just as art is looking for help from the primitives1 so these men are turning to half-forgotten times in order to get help from their half-forgotten methods4 ,however1 these very methods are still alive and in use among nations whom we1 from the height of our knowledge1 have been accustomed to regard with pity and scorn4 ,to such nations belong the ,indians1 who from time to time confront those learned in our civilization with problems which we have either passed by unnoticed or brushed aside with superficial words and explanations4 ,footnote3 ,frequently in such cases use is made of the word hypnotism2 that same hypnotism which1 in its earlier form of mesmerism1 was disdainfully put aside by various learned bodies4 ,mme4 ,blavatsky was the first person1 after a life of many years in ,india1 to see a connection between these savages and our civilization4 ,from that moment there began a tremendous spiritual movement which today includes a large number of people and has even assumed a material form in the ,,theosophical ,,society4 ,this society consists of groups who seek to approach the problem of the spirit by way of the ,,inner knowledge4 ,the theory of ,theosophy which serves as the basis to this movement was set out by ,blavatsky in the form of a catechism in which the pupil receives definite answers to his questions from the theosophical point of view4 ,footnote3 ,e4 ,p4 ,blavatsky1 ,the ,key of ,theosophy1 ,london1 #ahhi4 ,theosophy1 according to ,blavatsky1 is synonymous with ,,eternal ,,truth4 ,the new torchbearer of truth will find the minds of men prepared for his message1 a language ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he brings1 an organization awaiting his arrival1 which will remove the merely mechanical1 material obstacles and difficulties from his path4 ,and then ,blavatsky continues3 ,the earth will be a heaven in the twenty-first century in comparison with what it is now1 and with these words ends her book4 ,when religion1 science and morality are shaken1 the two last by the strong hand of ,nietzsche1 and when the outer supports threaten to fall1 man turns his gaze from externals in on to himself4 ,literature1 music and art are the first and most sensitive spheres in which this spiritual revolution makes itself felt4 ,they reflect the dark picture of the present time and show the importance of what at first was only a little point of light noticed by few and for the great majority non-existent4 ,perhaps they even grow dark in their turn1 but on the other hand they turn away from the soulless life of the present towards those substances and ideas which give free scope to the non-material strivings of the soul4 ,a poet of this kind in the realm of literature is ,maeterlinck4 ,he takes us into a world which1 rightly or wrongly1 we term supernatural4 ,la ,princesse ,maleine1 ,les ,sept ,princesses1 ,les ,aveugles1 etc41 are not people of past times as are the heroes in ,shakespeare4 ,they are merely souls lost in the clouds1 threatened by them with death1 eternally menaced by some invisible and sombre power4 ,spiritual darkness1 the insecurity of ignorance and fear pervade the world in which they move4 ,maeterlinck is perhaps one of the first prophets1 one of the first artistic reformers and seers to herald the end of the decadence just described4 ,the gloom of the spiritual atmosphere1 the terrible1 but all-guiding hand1 the sense of utter fear1 the feeling of having strayed from the path1 the confusion among the guides1 all these are clearly felt in his works4,footnote3 ,to the front tank of such seers of the decadence belongs also ,alfred ,kubin4 ,with irresistible force both ,kubin's drawings and also his novel ,die ,andere ,seite seem to engulf us in the terrible atmosphere of empty desolation4 ,this atmosphere ,maeterlinck creates principally by purely artistic means4 ,his material machinery 7gloomy mountains1 moonlight1 marshes1 wind1 the cries of owls1 etc47 plays really a symbolic role and helps to give the inner note4 ,footnote3 ,when one of ,maeterlinck's plays was produced in ,st4 ,petersburg under his own guidance1 he himself at one of the rehearsals had a tower represented by a plain piece of hanging linen4 ,it was of no importance to him to have elaborate scenery prepared4 ,he did as children1 the greatest imaginers of all time1 always do in their games2 for they use a stick for a horse or create entire regiments of cavalry out of chalks4 ,and in the same way a chalk with a notch in it is changed from a knight into a horse4 ,on similar lines the imagination of the spectator plays in the modern theatre1 and especially in that of ,russia1 an important part4 ,and this is a notable element in the transition from the material to the spiritual in the theatre of the future4 ,maeterlinck's principal technical weapon is his use of words4 ,the word may express an inner harmony4 ,this inner harmony springs partly1 perhaps principally1 from the object which it names4 ,but if the object is not itself seen1 but only its name heard1 the mind of the hearer receives an abstract impression only1 that is to say as of the object dematerialized1 and a corresponding vibration is immediately set up in the ,,heart4 ,the apt use of a word 7in its poetical meaning71 repetition of this word1 twice1 three times or even more frequently1 according to the need of the poem1 will not only tend to intensify the inner harmony but also bring to light unsuspected spiritual properties of the word itself4 ,further than that1 frequent repetition of a word 7again a favourite game of children1 which is forgotten in after life7 deprives the word of its original external meaning4 ,similarly1 in drawing1 the abstract message of the object drawn tends to be forgotten and its meaning lost4 ,sometimes perhaps we unconsciously hear this real harmony sounding together with the material or later on with the non-material sense of the object4 ,but in the latter case the true harmony exercises a direct impression on the soul4 ,the soul undergoes an emotion which has no relation to any definite object1 an emotion more complicated1 ,i might say more super-sensuous than the emotion caused by the sound of a bell or of a stringed instrument4 ,this line of development offers great possibilities to the literature of the future4 ,in an embryonic form this word-power-has already been used in ,,serres ,,chaudes4 ,footnote3 ,,serres ,,chaudes1 ,,suivies ,,de ,,quinze ,,chansons1 par ,maurice ,maeterlinck4 ,brussels4 ,lacomblez4 ,as ,maeterlinck uses them1 words which seem at first to create only a neutral impression have really a more subtle value4 ,even a familiar word like hair1 if used in a certain way can intensify an atmosphere of sorrow or despair4 ,and this is ,maeterlinck's method4 ,he shows that thunder1 lightning and a moon behind driving clouds1 in themselves material means1 can be used in the theatre to create a greater sense of terror than they do in nature4 ,the true inner forces do not lose their strength and effect so easily4 ,footnote3 ,a comparison between the work of ,poe and ,maeterlinck shows the course of artistic transition from the material to the abstract4 ,an the word which has two meanings1 the first direct1 the second indirect1 is the pure material of poetry and of literature1 the material which these arts alone can manipulate and through which they speak to the spirit4 ,something similar may be noticed in the music of ,wagner4 ,his famous leitmotiv is an attempt to give personality to his characters by something beyond theatrical expedients and light effect4 ,his method of using a definite motiv is a purely musical method4 ,it creates a spiritual atmosphere by means of a musical phrase which precedes the hero1 which he seems to radiate forth from any distance4 ,footnote3 ,frequent attempts have shown that such a spiritual atmosphere can belong not only to heroes but to any human being4 ,sensitives cannot1 for example1 remain in a room in which a person has been who is spiritually antagonistic to them1 even though they know nothing of his existence4 ,the most modern musicians like ,debussy create a spiritual impression1 often taken from nature1 but embodied in purely musical form4 ,for this reason ,debussy is often classed with the ,impressionist painters on the ground that he resembles these painters in using natural phenomena for the purposes of his art4 ,whatever truth there may be in this comparison merely accentuates the fact that the various arts of today learn from each other and often resemble each other4 ,but it would be rash to say that this definition is an exhaustive statement of ,debussy's significance4 ,despite his similarity with the ,impressionists this musician is deeply concerned with spiritual harmony1 for in his works one hears the suffering and tortured nerves of the present time4 ,and further ,debussy never uses the wholly material note so characteristic of programme music1 but trusts mainly in the creation of a more abstract impression4 ,debussy has been greatly influenced by ,russian music1 notably by ,mussorgsky4 ,so it is not surprising that he stands in close relation to the young ,russian composers1 the chief of whom is ,scriabin4 ,the experience of the hearer is frequently the same during the performance of the works of these two musicians4 ,he is often snatched quite suddenly from a series of modern discords into the charm of more or less conventional beauty4 ,he feels himself often insulted1 tossed about like a tennis ball over the net between the two parties of the outer and the inner beauty4 ,to those who are not accustomed to it the inner beauty appears as ugliness because humanity in general inclines to the outer and knows nothing of the inner4 ,almost alone in severing himself from conventional beauty is the ,austrian composer1 ,arnold ,schonberg4 ,he says in his ,harmonielehre3 ,every combination of notes1 every advance is possible1 but ,i am beginning to feel that there are also definite rules and conditions which incline me to the use of this or that dissonance4 ,footnote3 ,die ,musik1 p4 #ajd1 from the ,harmonielehre 7,verlag der ,universal ,edition74 ,this means that ,schonberg realizes that the greatest freedom of all1 the freedom of an unfettered art1 can never be absolute4 ,every age achieves a certain measure of this freedom1 but beyond the boundaries of its freedom the mightiest genius can never go4 ,but the measure of freedom of each age must be constantly enlarged4 ,schonberg is endeavouring to make complete use of his freedom and has already discovered gold mines of new beauty in his search for spiritual harmony4 ,his music leads us into a realm where musical experience is a matter not of the ear but of the soul alone--and from this point begins the music of the future4 ,a parallel course has been followed by the ,impressionist movement in painting4 ,it is seen in its dogmatic and most naturalistic form in so-called ,neo-,impressionism4 ,the theory of this is to put on the canvas the whole glitter and brilliance of nature1 and not only an isolated aspect of her4 ,it is interesting to notice three practically contemporary and totally different groups in painting4 ,they are 7#a7 ,rossetti and his pupil ,burne-,jones1 with their followers2 7#b7 ,bocklin and his school2 7#c7 ,segantini1 with his unworthy following of photographic artists4 ,i have chosen these three groups to illustrate the search for the abstract in art4 ,rossetti sought to revive the non-materialism of the pre-,raphaelites4 ,bocklin busied himself with the mythological scenes1 but was in contrast to ,rossetti in that he gave strongly material form to his legendary figures4 ,segantini1 outwardly the most material of the three1 selected the most ordinary objects 7hills1 stones1 cattle1 etc47 often painting them with the minutest realism1 but he never failed to create a spiritual as well as a material value1 so that really he is the most non-material of the trio4 ,these men sought for the inner by way of the outer4 ,by another road1 and one more purely artistic1 the great seeker after a new sense of form approached the same problem4 ,cezanne made a living thing out of a teacup1 or rather in a teacup he realized the existence of something alive4 ,he raised still life to such a point that it ceased to be inanimate4 ,he painted these things as he painted human beings1 because he was endowed with the gift of divining the inner life in everything4 ,his colour and form are alike suitable to the spiritual harmony4 ,a man1 a tree1 an apple1 all were used by ,cezanne in the creation of something that is called a picture1 and which is a piece of true inward and artistic harmony4 ,the same intention actuates the work of one of the greatest of the young ,frenchmen1 ,henri ,matisse4 ,he paints pictures1 and in these pictures endeavours to reproduce the divine4,footnote3 ,cf4 his article in ,,kunst ,,und ,,kunstler1 #aiji1 ,no4 #h4 ,to attain this end he requires as a starting point nothing but the object to be painted 7human being or whatever it may be71 and then the methods that belong to painting alone1 colour and form4 ,by personal inclination1 because he is ,french and because he is specially gifted as a colourist1 ,matisse is apt to lay too much stress on the colour4 ,like ,debussy1 he cannot always refrain from conventional beauty2 ,impressionism is in his blood4 ,one sees pictures of ,matisse which are full of great inward vitality1 produced by the stress of the inner need1 and also pictures which possess only outer charm1 because they were painted on an outer impulse4 7,how often one is reminded of ,manet in this47 ,his work seems to be typical ,french painting1 with its dainty sense of melody1 raised from time to time to the summit of a great hill above the clouds4 ,but in the work of another great artist in ,paris1 the ,spaniard ,pablo ,picasso1 there is never any suspicion of this conventional beauty4 ,tossed hither and thither by the need for self-expression1 ,picasso hurries from one manner to another4 ,at times a great gulf appears between consecutive manners1 because ,picasso leaps boldly and is found continually by his bewildered crowd of followers standing at a point very different from that at which they saw him last4 ,no sooner do they think that they have reached him again than he has changed once more4 ,in this way there arose ,cubism1 the latest of the ,french movements1 which is treated in detail in ,part ,,ii4 ,picasso is trying to arrive at constructiveness by way of proportion4 ,in his latest works 7#aiaa7 he has achieved the logical destruction of matter1 not1 however1 by dissolution but rather by a kind of a parcelling out of its various divisions and a constructive scattering of these divisions about the canvas4 ,but he seems in this most recent work distinctly desirous of keeping an appearance of matter4 ,he shrinks from no innovation1 and if colour seems likely to balk him in his search for a pure artistic form1 he throws it overboard and paints a picture in brown and white2 and the problem of purely artistic form is the real problem of his life4 ,in their pursuit of the same supreme end ,matisse and ,picasso stand side by side1 ,matisse representing colour and ,picasso form4 ,,iv4 ,,the ,,pyramid ,and so at different points along the road are the different arts1 saying what they are best able to say1 and in the language which is peculiarly their own4 ,despite1 or perhaps thanks to1 the differences between them1 there has never been a time when the arts approached each other more nearly than they do today1 in this later phase of spiritual development4 ,in each manifestation is the seed of a striving towards the abstract1 the non-material4 ,consciously or unconsciously they are obeying ,socrates' command--,know thyself4 ,consciously or unconsciously artists are studying and proving their material1 setting in the balance the spiritual value of those elements1 with which it is their several privilege to work4 ,and the natural result of this striving is that the various arts are drawing together4 ,they are finding in ,music the best teacher4 ,with few exceptions music has been for some centuries the art which has devoted itself not to the reproduction of natural phenomena1 but rather to the expression of the artist's soul1 in musical sound4 ,a painter1 who finds no satisfaction in mere representation1 however artistic1 in his longing to express his inner life1 cannot but envy the ease with which music1 the most non-material of the arts today1 achieves this end4 ,he naturally seeks to apply the methods of music to his own art4 ,and from this results that modern desire for rhythm in painting1 for mathematical1 abstract construction1 for repeated notes of colour1 for setting colour in motion4 ,this borrowing of method by one art from another1 can only be truly successful when the application of the borrowed methods is not superficial but fundamental4 ,one art must learn first how another uses its methods1 so that the methods may afterwards be applied to the borrower's art from the beginning1 and suitably4 ,the artist must not forget that in him lies the power of true application of every method1 but that that power must be developed4 ,in manipulation of form music can achieve results which are beyond the reach of painting4 ,on the other hand1 painting is ahead of music in several particulars4 ,music1 for example1 has at its disposal duration of time2 while painting can present to the spectator the whole content of its message at one moment4 ,footnote3 ,these statements of difference are1 of course1 relative2 for music can on occasions dispense with extension of time1 and painting make use of it4 ,music1 which is outwardly unfettered by nature1 needs no definite form for its expression4 ,footnote3 ,how miserably music fails when attempting to express material appearances is proved by the affected absurdity of programme music4 ,quite lately such experiments have been made4 ,the imitation in sound of croaking frogs1 of farmyard noises1 of household duties1 makes an excellent music hall turn and is amusing enough4 ,but in serious music such attempts are merely warnings against any imitation of nature4 ,nature has her own language1 and a powerful one2 this language cannot be imitated4 ,the sound of a farmyard in music is never successfully reproduced1 and is unnecessary waste of time4 ,the ,stimmung of nature can be imparted by every art1 not1 however1 by imitation1 but by the artistic divination of its inner spirit4 ,painting today is almost exclusively concerned with the reproduction of natural forms and phenomena4 ,her business is now to test her strength and methods1 to know herself as music has done for a long time1 and then to use her powers to a truly artistic end4 ,and so the arts are encroaching one upon another1 and from a proper use of this encroachment will rise the art that is truly monumental4 ,every man who steeps himself in the spiritual possibilities of his art is a valuable helper in the building of the spiritual pyramid which will some day reach to heaven4 ,,part ,,ii3 ,,about ,,painting ,v4 ,,the ,,psychological ,,working ,,of ,,colour ,to let the eye stray over a palette1 splashed with many colours1 produces a dual result4 ,in the first place one receives a ,,purely ,,physical ,,impression1 one of pleasure and contentment at the varied and beautiful colours4 ,the eye is either warmed or else soothed and cooled4 ,but these physical sensations can only be of short duration4 ,they are merely superficial and leave no lasting impression1 for the soul is unaffected4 ,but although the effect of the colours is forgotten when the eye is turned away1 the superficial impression of varied colour may be the starting point of a whole chain of related sensations4 ,on the average man only the impressions caused by very familiar objects1 will be purely superficial4 ,a first encounter with any new phenomenon exercises immediately an impression on the soul4 ,this is the experience of the child discovering the world1 to whom every object is new4 ,he sees a light1 wishes to take hold of it1 burns his finger and feels henceforward a proper respect for flame4 ,but later he learns that light has a friendly as well as an unfriendly side1 that it drives away the darkness1 makes the day longer1 is essential to warmth1 cooking1 play-acting4 ,from the mass of these discoveries is composed a knowledge of light1 which is indelibly fixed in his mind4 ,the strong1 intensive interest disappears and the various properties of flame are balanced against each other4 ,in this way the whole world becomes gradually disenchanted4 ,it is realized that trees give shade1 that horses run fast and motor-cars still faster1 that dogs bite1 that the figure seen in a mirror is not a real human being4 ,as the man develops1 the circle of these experiences caused by different beings and objects1 grows ever wider4 ,they acquire an inner meaning and eventually a spiritual harmony4 ,it is the same with colour1 which makes only a momentary and superficial impression on a soul but slightly developed in sensitiveness4 ,but even this superficial impression varies in quality4 ,the eye is strongly attracted by light1 clear colours1 and still more strongly attracted by those colours which are warm as well as clear2 vermilion has the charm of flame1 which has always attracted human beings4 ,keen lemon-yellow hurts the eye in time as a prolonged and shrill trumpet-note the ear1 and the gazer turns away to seek relief in blue or green4 ,but to a more sensitive soul the effect of colours is deeper and intensely moving4 ,and so we come to the second main result of looking at colours3 ,,their ,,psychic ,,effect4 ,they produce a corresponding spiritual vibration1 and it is only as a step towards this spiritual vibration that the elementary physical impression is of importance4 ,whether the psychic effect of colour is a direct one1 as these last few lines imply1 or whether it is the outcome of association1 is perhaps open to question4 ,the soul being one with the body1 the former may well experience a psychic shock1 caused by association acting on the latter4 ,for example1 red may cause a sensation analogous to that caused by flame1 because red is the colour of flame4 ,a warm red will prove exciting1 another shade of red will cause pain or disgust through association with running blood4 ,in these cases colour awakens a corresponding physical sensation1 which undoubtedly works upon the soul4 ,if this were always the case1 it would be easy to define by association the effects of colour upon other senses than that of sight4 ,one might say that keen yellow looks sour1 because it recalls the taste of a lemon4 ,but such definitions are not universally possible4 ,there are many examples of colour working which refuse to be so classified4 ,a ,dresden doctor relates of one of his patients1 whom he designates as an exceptionally sensitive person1 that he could not eat a certain sauce without tasting blue1 i4e4 without experiencing a feeling of seeing a blue color4 ,footnote3 ,dr4 ,freudenberg4 ,spaltung der ,personlichkeit 7,ubersinnliche ,welt4 #aijh4 ,no4 #b1 p4 #fd-fe74 ,the author also discusses the hearing of colour1 and says that here also no rules can be laid down4 ,but cf4 ,l4 ,sabanejeff in ,musik1 ,moscow1 #aiaa1 ,no4 #i1 where the imminent possibility of laying down a law is clearly hinted at4 ,it would be possible to suggest1 by way of explanation of this1 that in highly sensitive people1 the way to the soul is so direct and the soul itself so impressionable1 that any impression of taste communicates itself immediately to the soul1 and thence to the other organs of sense 7in this case1 the eyes74 ,this would imply an echo or reverberation1 such as occurs sometimes in musical instruments which1 without being touched1 sound in harmony with some other instrument struck at the moment4 ,but not only with taste has sight been known to work in harmony4 ,many colours have been described as rough or sticky1 others as smooth and uniform1 so that one feels inclined to stroke them 7e4g41 dark ultramarine1 chromic oxide green1 and rose madder74 ,equally the distinction between warm and cold colours belongs to this connection4 ,some colours appear soft 7rose madder71 others hard 7cobalt green1 blue-green oxide71 so that even fresh from the tube they seem to be dry4 ,the expression scented colours is frequently met with4 ,and finally the sound of colours is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would try to express bright yellow in the bass notes1 or dark lake in the treble4 ,footnote3 ,much theory and practice have been devoted to this question4 ,people have sought to paint in counterpoint4 ,also unmusical children have been successfully helped to play the piano by quoting a parallel in colour 7e4g41 of flowers74 ,on these lines ,frau ,a4 ,sacharjin-,unkowsky has worked for several years and has evolved a method of so describing sounds by natural colours1 and colours by natural sounds1 that colour could be heard and sound seen4 ,the system has proved successful for several years both in the inventor's own school and the ,conservatoire at ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,finally ,scriabin1 on more spiritual lines1 has paralleled sound and colours in a chart not unlike that of ,frau ,unkowsky4 ,in ,prometheus he has given convincing proof of his theories4 7,his chart appeared in ,musik1 ,moscow1 #aiaa1 ,no4 #i47 ,footnote3 ,the converse question1 i4e4 the colour of sound1 was touched upon by ,mallarme and systematized by his disciple ,rene ,ghil1 whose book1 ,traite du ,verbe1 gives the rules for l'instrumentation verbale4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 ,the explanation by association will not suffice us in many1 and the most important cases4 ,those who have heard of chromotherapy will know that coloured light can exercise very definite influences on the whole body4 ,attempts have been made with different colours in the treatment of various nervous ailments4 ,they have shown that red light stimulates and excites the heart1 while blue light can cause temporary paralysis4 ,but when the experiments come to be tried on animals and even plants1 the association theory falls to the ground4 ,so one is bound to admit that the question is at present unexplored1 but that colour can exercise enormous influence over the body as a physical organism4 ,no more sufficient1 in the psychic sphere1 is the theory of association4 ,generally speaking1 colour is a power which directly influences the soul4 ,colour is the keyboard1 the eyes are the hammers1 the soul is the piano with many strings4 ,the artist is the hand which plays1 touching one key or another1 to cause vibrations in the soul4 ,,it ,,is ,,evident ,,therefore ,,that ,,colour ,,harmony ,,must ,,rest ,,only ,,on ,a ,,corresponding ,,vibration ,,in ,,the ,,human ,,soul2 ,,and ,,this ,,is ,,one ,,of ,,the ,,guiding ,,principles ,,of ,,the ,,inner ,,need4 ,footnote3 ,the phrase inner need 7innere ,notwendigkeit7 means primarily the impulse felt by the artist for spiritual expression4 ,kandinsky is apt1 however1 to use the phrase sometimes to mean not only the hunger for spiritual expression1 but also the actual expression itself4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 ,,vi4 ,,the ,,language ,,of ,,form ,,and ,,colour ,the man that hath no music in himself1 ,nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds1 ,is fit for treasons1 stratagems1 and spoils2 ,the motions of his spirit are dull as night1 ,and his affections dark as ,erebus3 ,let no such man be trusted4 ,mark the music4 7,the ,merchant of ,venice1 ,act v1 ,scene ,i47 ,musical sound acts directly on the soul and finds an echo there because1 though to varying extents1 music is innate in man4 ,footnote3 ,cf4 ,e4 ,jacques-,dalcroze in ,the ,eurhythmics of ,jacques-,dalcroze4 ,london1 ,constable4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 ,everyone knows that yellow1 orange1 and red suggest ideas of joy and plenty 7,delacroix74 ,footnote3 ,cf4 ,paul ,signac1 ,d',eugene ,delacroix au ,neo-,impressionisme4 ,paris4 ,floury4 ,also compare an interesting article by ,k4 ,schettler3 ,notizen uber die ,farbe4 7,decorative ,kunst1 #aija1 ,february74 ,these two quotations show the deep relationship between the arts1 and especially between music and painting4 ,goethe said that painting must count this relationship her main foundation1 and by this prophetic remark he seems to foretell the position in which painting is today4 ,she stands1 in fact1 at the first stage of the road by which she will1 according to her own possibilities1 make art an abstraction of thought and arrive finally at purely artistic composition4 ,footnote3 ,by ,komposition ,kandinsky here means1 of course1 an artistic creation4 ,he is not referring to the arrangement of the objects in a picture4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 ,painting has two weapons at her disposal3 #a4 ,colour4 #b4 ,form4 ,form can stand alone as representing an object 7either real or otherwise7 or as a purely abstract limit to a space or a surface4 ,colour cannot stand alone2 it cannot dispense with boundaries of some kind4 ,footnote3 ,cf4 ,a4 ,wallace ,rimington4 ,colour music 7,,op4 ,,cit47 where experiments are recounted with a colour organ1 which gives symphonies of rapidly changing colour without boundaries--except the unavoidable ones of the white curtain on which the colours are reflected4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 ,a never-ending extent of red can only be seen in the mind2 when the word red is heard1 the colour is evoked without definite boundaries4 ,if such are necessary they have deliberately to be imagined4 ,but such red1 as is seen by the mind and not by the eye1 exercises at once a definite and an indefinite impression on the soul1 and produces spiritual harmony4 ,i say indefinite1 because in itself it has no suggestion of warmth or cold1 such attributes having to be imagined for it afterwards1 as modifications of the original redness4 ,i say definite1 because the spiritual harmony exists without any need for such subsequent attributes of warmth or cold4 ,an analogous case is the sound of a trumpet which one hears when the word trumpet is pronounced4 ,this sound is audible to the soul1 without the distinctive character of a trumpet heard in the open air or in a room1 played alone or with other instruments1 in the hands of a postilion1 a huntsman1 a soldier1 or a professional musician4 ,but when red is presented in a material form 7as in painting7 it must possess 7#a7 some definite shade of the many shades of red that exist and 7#b7 a limited surface1 divided off from the other colours1 which are undoubtedly there4 ,the first of these conditions 7the subjective7 is affected by the second 7the objective71 for the neighbouring colours affect the shade of red4 ,this essential connection between colour and form brings us to the question of the influences of form on colour4 ,form alone1 even though totally abstract and geometrical1 has a power of inner suggestion4 ,a triangle 7without the accessory consideration of its being acute-or obtuse-angled or equilateral7 has a spiritual value of its own4 ,in connection with other forms1 this value may be somewhat modified1 but remains in quality the same4 ,the case is similar with a circle1 a square1 or any conceivable geometrical figure4 ,footnote3 ,the angle at which the triangle stands1 and whether it is stationary or moving1 are of importance to its spiritual value4 ,this fact is specially worthy of the painter's consideration4 ,as above1 with the red1 we have here a subjective substance in an objective shell4 ,the mutual influence of form and colour now becomes clear4 ,a yellow triangle1 a blue circle1 a green square1 or a green triangle1 a yellow circle1 a blue square--all these are different and have different spiritual values4 ,it is evident that many colours are hampered and even nullified in effect by many forms4 ,on the whole1 keen colours are well suited by sharp forms 7e4g41 a yellow triangle71 and soft1 deep colours by round forms 7e4g41 a blue circle74 ,but it must be remembered that an unsuitable combination of form and colour is not necessarily discordant1 but may1 with manipulation1 show the way to fresh possibilities of harmony4 ,since colours and forms are well-nigh innumerable1 their combination and their influences are likewise unending4 ,the material is inexhaustible4 ,form1 in the narrow sense1 is nothing but the separating line between surfaces of colour4 ,that is its outer meaning4 ,but it has also an inner meaning1 of varying intensity1 ,footnote3 ,it is never literally true that any form is meaningless and says nothing4 ,every form in the world says something4 ,but its message often fails to reach us1 and even if it does1 full understanding is often withheld from us4 and1 properly speaking1 ,,form ,,is ,,the ,,outward ,,expression ,,of ,,this ,,inner ,,meaning4 ,to use once more the metaphor of the piano--the artist is the hand which1 by playing on this or that key 7i4e41 form71 affects the human soul in this or that way4 ,,so ,,it ,,is ,,evident ,,that ,,form-,,harmony ,,must ,,rest ,,only ,,on ,a ,,corresponding ,,vibration ,,of ,,the ,,human ,,soul2 ,,and ,,this ,,is ,a ,,second ,,guiding ,,principle ,,of ,,the ,,inner ,,need4 ,the two aspects of form just mentioned define its two aims4 ,the task of limiting surfaces 7the outer aspect7 is well performed if the inner meaning is fully expressed4 ,footnote3 ,the phrase full expression must be clearly understood4 ,form often is most expressive when least coherent4 ,it is often most expressive when outwardly most imperfect1 perhaps only a stroke1 a mere hint of outer meaning4 ,the outer task may assume many different shapes2 but it will never fail in one of two purposes3 7#a7 ,either form aims at so limiting surfaces as to fashion of them some material object2 7#b7 ,or form remains abstract1 describing only a non-material1 spiritual entity4 ,such non-material entities1 with life and value as such1 are a circle1 a triangle1 a rhombus1 a trapeze1 etc41 many of them so complicated as to have no mathematical denomination4 ,between these two extremes lie the innumerable forms in which both elements exist2 with a preponderance either of the abstract or the material4 ,these intermediate forms are1 at present1 the store on which the artist has to draw4 ,purely abstract forms are beyond the reach of the artist at present2 they are too indefinite for him4 ,to limit himself to the purely indefinite would be to rob himself of possibilities1 to exclude the human element and therefore to weaken his power of expression4 ,on the other hand1 there exists equally no purely material form4 ,a material object cannot be absolutely reproduced4 ,for good or evil1 the artist has eyes and hands1 which are perhaps more artistic than his intentions and refuse to aim at photography alone4 ,many genuine artists1 who cannot be content with a mere inventory of material objects1 seek to express the objects by what was once called idealization1 then selection1 and which tomorrow will again be called something different4 ,footnote3 ,the motive of idealization is so to beautify the organic form as to bring out its harmony and rouse poetic feeling4 ,selection aims not so much at beautification as at emphasizing the character of the object1 by the omission of non-essentials4 ,the desire of the future will be purely the expression of the inner meaning4 ,the organic form no longer serves as direct object1 but as the human words in which a divine message must be written1 in order for it to be comprehensible to human minds4 ,the impossibility and1 in art1 the uselessness of attempting to copy an object exactly1 the desire to give the object full expression1 are the impulses which drive the artist away from literal colouring to purely artistic aims4 ,and that brings us to the question of composition4 ,footnote3 ,here ,kandinsky means arrangement of the picture4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 ,pure artistic composition has two elements3 #a4 ,the composition of the whole picture4 #b4 ,the creation of the various forms which1 by standing in different relationships to each other1 decide the composition of the whole4 ,footnote3 ,the general composition will naturally include many little compositions which may be antagonistic to each other1 though helping--perhaps by their very antagonism--the harmony of the whole4 ,these little compositions have themselves subdivisions of varied inner meanings4 ,many objects have to be considered in the light of the whole1 and so ordered as to suit this whole4 ,singly they will have little meaning1 being of importance only in so far as they help the general effect4 ,these single objects must be fashioned in one way only2 and this1 not because their own inner meaning demands that particular fashioning1 but entirely because they have to serve as building material for the whole composition4 ,footnote3 ,a good example is ,cezanne's ,bathing ,women1 which is built in the form of a triangle4 ,such building is an old principle1 which was being abandoned only because academic usage had made it lifeless4 ,but ,cezanne has given it new life4 ,he does not use it to harmonize his groups1 but for purely artistic purposes4 ,he distorts the human figure with perfect justification4 ,not only must the whole figure follow the lines of the triangle1 but each limb must grow narrower from bottom to top4 ,raphael's ,holy ,family is an example of triangular composition used only for the harmonizing of the group1 and without any mystical motive4 ,so the abstract idea is creeping into art1 although1 only yesterday1 it was scorned and obscured by purely material ideals4 ,its gradual advance is natural enough1 for in proportion as the organic form falls into the background1 the abstract ideal achieves greater prominence4 ,but the organic form possesses all the same an inner harmony of its own1 which may be either the same as that of its abstract parallel 7thus producing a simple combination of the two elements7 or totally different 7in which case the combination may be unavoidably discordant74 ,however diminished in importance the organic form may be1 its inner note will always be heard2 and for this reason the choice of material objects is an important one4 ,the spiritual accord of the organic with the abstract element may strengthen the appeal of the latter 7as much by contrast as by similarity7 or may destroy it4 ,suppose a rhomboidal composition1 made up of a number of human figures4 ,the artist asks himself3 ,are these human figures an absolute necessity to the composition1 or should they be replaced by other forms1 and that without affecting the fundamental harmony of the whole8 ,if the answer is ,yes1 we have a case in which the material appeal directly weakens the abstract appeal4 ,the human form must either be replaced by another object which1 whether by similarity or contrast1 will strengthen the abstract appeal1 or must remain a purely non-material symbol4 ,footnote3 ,cf4 ,translator's ,introduction1 pp4 xviii and xx4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 ,once more the metaphor of the piano4 ,for colour or form substitute object4 ,every object has its own life and therefore its own appeal2 man is continually subject to these appeals4 ,but the results are often dubbed either sub--or super-conscious4 ,nature1 that is to say the ever-changing surroundings of man1 sets in vibration the strings of the piano 7the soul7 by manipulation of the keys 7the various objects with their several appeals74 ,the impressions we receive1 which often appear merely chaotic1 consist of three elements3 the impression of the colour of the object1 of its form1 and of its combined colour and form1 i4e4 of the object itself4 ,at this point the individuality of the artist comes to the front and disposes1 as he wills1 these three elements4 ,,it ,,is ,,clear1 ,,therefore1 ,,that ,,the ,,choice ,,of ,,object 7i4e4 ,,of ,,one ,,of ,,the ,,elements ,,in ,,the ,,harmony ,,of ,,form7 ,,must ,,be ,,decided ,,only ,,by ,a ,,corresponding ,,vibration ,,in ,,the ,,human ,,soul2 ,,and ,,this ,,is ,a ,,third ,,guiding ,,principle ,,of ,,the ,,inner ,,need4 ,the more abstract is form1 the more clear and direct is its appeal4 ,in any composition the material side may be more or less omitted in proportion as the forms used are more or less material1 and for them substituted pure abstractions1 or largely dematerialized objects4 ,the more an artist uses these abstracted forms1 the deeper and more confidently will he advance into the kingdom of the abstract4 ,and after him will follow the gazer at his pictures1 who also will have gradually acquired a greater familiarity with the language of that kingdom4 ,must we then abandon utterly all material objects and paint solely in abstractions8 ,the problem of harmonizing the appeal of the material and the non-material shows us the answer to this question4 ,as every word spoken rouses an inner vibration1 so likewise does every object represented4 ,to deprive oneself of this possibility is to limit one's powers of expression4 ,that is at any rate the case at present4 ,but besides this answer to the question1 there is another1 and one which art can always employ to any question beginning with must3 ,there is no must in art1 because art is free4 ,with regard to the second problem of composition1 the creation of the single elements which are to compose the whole1 it must be remembered that the same form in the same circumstances will always have the same inner appeal4 ,only the circumstances are constantly varying4 ,it results that3 7#a7 ,the ideal harmony alters according to the relation to other forms of the form which causes it4 7#b7 ,even in similar relationship a slight approach to or withdrawal from other forms may affect the harmony4 ,footnote3 ,this is what is meant by an appeal of motion4 ,for example1 the appeal of an upright triangle is more steadfast and quiet than that of one set obliquely on its side4 ,nothing is absolute4 ,form-composition rests on a relative basis1 depending on 7#a7 the alterations in the mutual relations of forms one to another1 7#b7 alterations in each individual form1 down to the very smallest4 ,every form is as sensitive as a puff of smoke1 the slightest breath will alter it completely4 ,this extreme mobility makes it easier to obtain similar harmonies from the use of different forms1 than from a repetition of the same one2 though of course an exact replica of a spiritual harmony can never be produced4 ,so long as we are susceptible only to the appeal of a whole composition1 this fact is of mainly theoretical importance4 ,but when we become more sensitive by a constant use of abstract forms 7which have no material interpretation7 it will become of great practical significance4 ,and so as art becomes more difficult1 its wealth of expression in form becomes greater and greater4 ,at the same time the question of distortion in drawing falls out and is replaced by the question how far the inner appeal of the particular form is veiled or given full expression4 ,and once more the possibilities are extended1 for combinations of veiled and fully expressed appeals suggest new ,,leitmotiven in composition4 ,without such development as this1 form-composition is impossible4 ,to anyone who cannot experience the inner appeal of form 7whether material or abstract7 such composition can never be other than meaningless4 ,apparently aimless alterations in form-arrangement will make art seem merely a game4 ,so once more we are faced with the same principle1 which is to set art free1 the principle of the inner need4 ,when features or limbs for artistic reasons are changed or distorted1 men reject the artistic problem and fall back on the secondary question of anatomy4 ,but1 on our argument1 this secondary consideration does not appear1 only the real1 artistic question remaining4 ,these apparently irresponsible1 but really well-reasoned alterations in form provide one of the storehouses of artistic possibilities4 ,the adaptability of forms1 their organic but inward variations1 their motion in the picture1 their inclination to material or abstract1 their mutual relations1 either individually or as parts of a whole2 further1 the concord or discord of the various elements of a picture1 the handling of groups1 the combinations of veiled and openly expressed appeals1 the use of rhythmical or unrhythmical1 of geometrical or non-geometrical forms1 their contiguity or separation--all these things are the material for counterpoint in painting4 ,but so long as colour is excluded1 such counterpoint is confined to black and white4 ,colour provides a whole wealth of possibilities of her own1 and when combined with form1 yet a further series of possibilities4 ,and all these will be expressions of the inner need4 ,the inner need is built up of three mystical elements3 7#a7 ,every artist1 as a creator1 has something in him which calls for expression 7this is the element of personality74 7#b7 ,every artist1 as child of his age1 is impelled to express the spirit of his age 7this is the element of style7--dictated by the period and particular country to which the artist belongs 7it is doubtful how long the latter distinction will continue to exist74 7#c7 ,every artist1 as a servant of art1 has to help the cause of art 7this is the element of pure artistry1 which is constant in all ages and among all nationalities74 ,a full understanding of the first two elements is necessary for a realization of the third4 ,but he who has this realization will recognize that a rudely carved ,indian column is an expression of the same spirit as actuates any real work of art of today4 ,in the past and even today much talk is heard of personality in art4 ,talk of the coming style becomes more frequent daily4 ,but for all their importance today1 these questions will have disappeared after a few hundred or thousand years4 ,only the third element--that of pure artistry--will remain for ever4 ,an ,egyptian carving speaks to us today more subtly than it did to its chronological contemporaries2 for they judged it with the hampering knowledge of period and personality4 ,but we can judge purely as an expression of the eternal artistry4 ,similarly--the greater the part played in a modern work of art by the two elements of style and personality1 the better will it be appreciated by people today2 but a modern work of art which is full of the third element1 will fail to reach the contemporary soul4 ,for many centuries have to pass away before the third element can be received with understanding4 ,but the artist in whose work this third element predominates is the really great artist4 ,because the elements of style and personality make up what is called the periodic characteristics of any work of art1 the development of artistic forms must depend on their separation from the element of pure artistry1 which knows neither period nor nationality4 ,but as style and personality create in every epoch certain definite forms1 which1 for all their superficial differences1 are really closely related1 these forms can be spoken of as one side of art--the ,,subjective4 ,every artist chooses1 from the forms which reflect his own time1 those which are sympathetic to him1 and expresses himself through them4 ,so the subjective element is the definite and external expression of the inner1 objective element4 ,the inevitable desire for outward expression of the ,,objective element is the impulse here defined as the inner need4 ,the forms it borrows change from day to day1 and1 as it continually advances1 what is today a phrase of inner harmony becomes tomorrow one of outer harmony4 ,it is clear1 therefore1 that the inner spirit of art only uses the outer form of any particular period as a stepping-stone to further expression4 ,in short1 the working of the inner need and the development of art is an ever-advancing expression of the eternal and objective in the terms of the periodic and subjective4 ,because the objective is forever exchanging the subjective expression of today for that of tomorrow1 each new extension of liberty in the use of outer form is hailed as the last and supreme4 ,at present we say that an artist can use any form he wishes1 so long as he remains in touch with nature4 ,but this limitation1 like all its predecessors1 is only temporary4 ,from the point of view of the inner need1 no limitation must be made4 ,the artist may use any form which his expression demands2 for his inner impulse must find suitable outward expression4 ,so we see that a deliberate search for personality and style is not only impossible1 but comparatively unimportant4 ,the close relationship of art throughout the ages1 is not a relationship in outward form but in inner meaning4 ,and therefore the talk of schools1 of lines of development1 of principles of art1 etc41 is based on misunderstanding and can only lead to confusion4 ,the artist must be blind to distinctions between recognized or unrecognized conventions of form1 deaf to the transitory teaching and demands of his particular age4 ,he must watch only the trend of the inner need1 and hearken to its words alone4 ,then he will with safety employ means both sanctioned and forbidden by his contemporaries4 ,all means are sacred which are called for by the inner need4 ,all means are sinful which obscure that inner need4 ,it is impossible to theorize about this ideal of art4 ,in real art theory does not precede practice1 but follows her4 ,everything is1 at first1 a matter of feeling4 ,any theoretical scheme will be lacking in the essential of creation--the inner desire for expression--which cannot be determined4 ,neither the quality of the inner need1 nor its subjective form1 can be measured nor weighed4 ,footnote3 ,the many-sided genius of ,leonardo devised a system of little spoons with which different colours were to be used1 thus creating a kind of mechanical harmony4 ,one of his pupils1 after trying in vain to use this system1 in despair asked one of his colleagues how the master himself used the invention4 ,the colleague replied3 ,the master never uses it at all4 7,mereschowski1 ,,leonardo ,,da ,,vinci74 ,such a grammar of painting can only be temporarily guessed at1 and should it ever be achieved1 it will be not so much according to physical rules 7which have so often been tried and which today the ,cubists are trying7 as according to the rules of the inner need1 which are of the soul4 ,the inner need is the basic alike of small and great problems in painting4 ,we are seeking today for the road which is to lead us away from the outer to the inner basis4 ,footnote3 ,the term outer1 here used1 must not be confused with the term material used previously4 ,i am using the former to mean outer need1 which never goes beyond conventional limits1 nor produces other than conventional beauty4 ,the inner need knows no such limits1 and often produces results conventionally considered ugly4 ,but ugly itself is a conventional term1 and only means spiritually unsympathetic1 being applied to some expression of an inner need1 either outgrown or not yet attained4 ,but everything which adequately expresses the inner need is beautiful4 ,the spirit1 like the body1 can be strengthened and developed by frequent exercise4 ,just as the body1 if neglected1 grows weaker and finally impotent1 so the spirit perishes if untended4 ,and for this reason it is necessary for the artist to know the starting point for the exercise of his spirit4 ,the starting point is the study of colour and its effects on men4 ,there is no need to engage in the finer shades of complicated colour1 but rather at first to consider only the direct use of simple colours4 ,to begin with1 let us test the working on ourselves of individual colours1 and so make a simple chart1 which will facilitate the consideration of the whole question4 ,two great divisions of colour occur to the mind at the outset3 into warm and cold1 and into light and dark4 ,to each colour there are therefore four shades of appeal--warm and light or warm and dark1 or cold and light or cold and dark4 ,generally speaking1 warmth or cold in a colour means an approach respectively to yellow or to blue4 ,this distinction is1 so to speak1 on one basis1 the colour having a constant fundamental appeal1 but assuming either a more material or more non-material quality4 ,the movement is an horizontal one1 the warm colours approaching the spectator1 the cold ones retreating from him4 ,the colours1 which cause in another colour this horizontal movement1 while they are themselves affected by it1 have another movement of their own1 which acts with a violent separative force4 ,this is1 therefore1 the first antithesis in the inner appeal1 and the inclination of the colour to yellow or to blue1 is of tremendous importance4 ,the second antithesis is between white and black2 i4e41 the inclination to light or dark caused by the pair of colours just mentioned4 ,these colours have once more their peculiar movement to and from the spectator1 but in a more rigid form 7see ,fig4 #a74 ,,figure ,i ,first ,pair of antitheses4 7inner appeal acting on ,a and ,b4 the spirit7 ,a4 ,warm ,cold ,yellow ,blue ,first antithesis ,two movements3 7i7 horizontal ,towards the spectator ----- ----- ,away from the spectator 7bodily7 7spiritual7 ,yellow ,blue 7ii7 ,ex- and concentric ,b4 ,light ,dark ,white ,black ,second ,antithesis ,two movements3 7i7 discordant ,eternal discord1 but with ,absolute discord1 devoid possibilities for the ,white ,black of possibilities for the future 7birth7 future 7death7 7ii7 ex-and concentric1 as in case of yellow and blue1 but more rigid4 ,yellow and blue have another movement which affects the first antithesis--an ex-and concentric movement4 ,if two circles are drawn and painted respectively yellow and blue1 brief concentration will reveal in the yellow a spreading movement out from the centre1 and a noticeable approach to the spectator4 ,the blue1 on the other hand1 moves in upon itself1 like a snail retreating into its shell1 and draws away from the spectator4 ,footnote3 ,these statements have no scientific basis1 but are founded purely on spiritual experience4 ,in the case of light and dark colours the movement is emphasized4 ,that of the yellow increases with an admixture of white1 i4e41 as it becomes lighter4 ,that of the blue increases with an admixture of black1 i4e41 as it becomes darker4 ,this means that there can never be a dark-coloured yellow4 ,the relationship between white and yellow is as close as between black and blue1 for blue can be so dark as to border on black4 ,besides this physical relationship1 is also a spiritual one 7between yellow and white on one side1 between blue and black on the other7 which marks a strong separation between the two pairs4 ,an attempt to make yellow colder produces a green tint and checks both the horizontal and excentric movement4 ,the colour becomes sickly and unreal4 ,the blue by its contrary movement acts as a brake on the yellow1 and is hindered in its own movement1 till the two together become stationary1 and the result is green4 ,similarly a mixture of black and white produces gray1 which is motionless and spiritually very similar to green4 ,but while green1 yellow1 and blue are potentially active1 though temporarily paralysed1 in gray there is no possibility of movement1 because gray consists of two colours that have no active force1 for they stand the1 one in motionless discord1 the other in a motionless negation1 even of discord1 like an endless wall or a bottomless pit4 ,because the component colours of green are active and have a movement of their own1 it is possible1 on the basis of this movement1 to reckon their spiritual appeal4 ,the first movement of yellow1 that of approach to the spectator 7which can be increased by an intensification of the yellow71 and also the second movement1 that of over-spreading the boundaries1 have a material parallel in the human energy which assails every obstacle blindly1 and bursts forth aimlessly in every direction4 ,yellow1 if steadily gazed at in any geometrical form1 has a disturbing influence1 and reveals in the colour an insistent1 aggressive character4 ,footnote3 ,it is worth noting that the sour-tasting lemon and shrill-singing canary are both yellow4 ,the intensification of the yellow increases the painful shrillness of its note4 ,footnote3 ,any parallel between colour and music can only be relative4 ,just as a violin can give various shades of tone1--so yellow has shades1 which can be expressed by various instruments4 ,but in making such parallels1 ,i am assuming in each case a pure tone of colour or sound1 unvaried by vibration or dampers1 etc4 ,yellow is the typically earthly colour4 ,it can never have profound meaning4 ,an intermixture of blue makes it a sickly colour4 ,it may be paralleled in human nature1 with madness1 not with melancholy or hypochondriacal mania1 but rather with violent raving lunacy4 ,the power of profound meaning is found in blue1 and first in its physical movements 7#a7 of retreat from the spectator1 7#b7 of turning in upon its own centre4 ,the inclination of blue to depth is so strong that its inner appeal is stronger when its shade is deeper4 ,blue is the typical heavenly colour4 ,footnote3 444,the halos are golden for emperors and prophets 7i4e4 for mortals71 and sky-blue for symbolic figures 7i4e4 spiritual beings72 7,kondakoff1 ,histoire de l',an ,byzantine consideree principalement dans les miniatures1 vol4 ii1 p4 #chb1 ,paris1 #ahhf-ia74 ,the ultimate feeling it creates is one of rest4 ,footnote3 ,supernatural rest1 not the earthly contentment of green4 ,the way to the supernatural lies through the natural4 ,and we mortals passing from the earthly yellow to the heavenly blue must pass through green4 ,when it sinks almost to black1 it echoes a grief that is hardly human4 ,footnote3 ,as an echo of grief violet stand to blue as does green in its production of rest4 ,when it rises towards white1 a movement little suited to it1 its appeal to men grows weaker and more distant4 ,in music a light blue is like a flute1 a darker blue a cello2 a still darker a thunderous double bass2 and the darkest blue of all-an organ4 ,a well-balanced mixture of blue and yellow produces green4 ,the horizontal movement ceases2 likewise that from and towards the centre4 ,the effect on the soul through the eye is therefore motionless4 ,this is a fact recognized not only by opticians but by the world4 ,green is the most restful colour that exists4 ,on exhausted men this restfulness has a beneficial effect1 but after a time it becomes wearisome4 ,pictures painted in shades of green are passive and tend to be wearisome2 this contrasts with the active warmth of yellow or the active coolness of blue4 ,in the hierarchy of colours green is the bourgeoisie-self-satisfied1 immovable1 narrow4 ,it is the colour of summer1 the period when nature is resting from the storms of winter and the productive energy of spring 7cf4 ,fig4 #b74 ,any preponderance in green of yellow or blue introduces a corresponding activity and changes the inner appeal4 ,the green keeps its characteristic equanimity and restfulness1 the former increasing with the inclination to lightness1 the latter with the inclination to depth4 ,in music the absolute green is represented by the placid1 middle notes of a violin4 ,black and white have already been discussed in general terms4 ,more particularly speaking1 white1 although often considered as no colour 7a theory largely due to the ,impressionists1 who saw no white in nature as a symbol of a world from which all colour as a definite attribute has disappeared74 ,footnote3 ,van ,gogh1 in his letters1 asks whether he may not paint a white wall dead white4 ,this question offers no difficulty to the non-representative artist who is concerned only with the inner harmony of colour4 ,but to the impressionist-realist it seems a bold liberty to take with nature4 ,to him it seems as outrageous as his own change from brown shadows to blue seemed to his contemporaries4 ,van ,gogh's question marks a transition from ,impressionism to an art of spiritual harmony1 as the coming of the blue shadow marked a transition from academism to ,impressionism4 7,cf4 ,the ,letters of ,vincent van ,gogh4 ,constable1 ,london47 ,this world is too far above us for its harmony to touch our souls4 ,a great silence1 like an impenetrable wall1 shrouds its life from our understanding4 ,white1 therefore1 has this harmony of silence1 which works upon us negatively1 like many pauses in music that break temporarily the melody4 ,it is not a dead silence1 but one pregnant with possibilities4 ,white has the appeal of the nothingness that is before birth1 of the world in the ice age4 ,a totally dead silence1 on the other hand1 a silence with no possibilities1 has the inner harmony of black4 ,in music it is represented by one of those profound and final pauses1 after which any continuation of the melody seems the dawn of another world4 ,black is something burnt out1 like the ashes of a funeral pyre1 something motionless like a corpse4 ,the silence of black is the silence of death4 ,outwardly black is the colour with least harmony of all1 a kind of neutral background against which the minutest shades of other colours stand clearly forward4 ,it differs from white in this also1 for with white nearly every colour is in discord1 or even mute altogether4 ,footnote3 ,e4g4 vermilion rings dull and muddy against white1 but against black with clear strength4 ,light yellow against white is weak1 against black pure and brilliant4 ,not without reason is white taken as symbolizing joy and spotless purity1 and black grief and death4 ,a blend of black and white produces gray which1 as has been said1 is silent and motionless1 being composed of two inactive colours1 its restfulness having none of the potential activity of green4 ,a similar gray is produced by a mixture of green and red1 a spiritual blend of passivity and glowing warmth4 ,footnote3 ,gray immobility and rest4 ,delacroix sought to express rest by a mixture of green and red 7cf4 ,signac1 sup4 cit474 ,the unbounded warmth of red has not the irresponsible appeal of yellow1 but rings inwardly with a determined and powerful intensity4 ,it glows in itself1 maturely1 and does not distribute its vigour aimlessly 7see ,fig4 #b74 ,the varied powers of red are very striking4 ,by a skillful use of it in its different shades1 its fundamental tone may be made warm or cold4 ,footnote3 ,of course every colour can be to some extent varied between warm and cold1 but no colour has so extensive a scale of varieties as red4 ,light warm red has a certain similarity to medium yellow1 alike in texture and appeal1 and gives a feeling of strength1 vigour1 determination1 triumph4 ,in music1 it is a sound of trumpets1 strong1 harsh1 and ringing4 ,vermilion is a red with a feeling of sharpness1 like glowing steel which can be cooled by water4 ,vermilion is quenched by blue1 for it can support no mixture with a cold colour4 ,more accurately speaking1 such a mixture produces what is called a dirty colour1 scorned by painters of today4 ,but dirt as a material object has its own inner appeal1 and therefore to avoid it in painting1 is as unjust and narrow as was the cry of yesterday for pure colour4 ,at the call of the inner need that which is outwardly foul may be inwardly pure1 and vice versa4 ,the two shades of red just discussed are similar to yellow1 except that they reach out less to the spectator4 ,the glow of red is within itself4 ,for this reason it is a colour more beloved than yellow1 being frequently used in primitive and traditional decoration1 and also in peasant costumes1 because in the open air the harmony of red and green is very beautiful4 ,taken by itself this red is material1 and1 like yellow1 has no very deep appeal4 ,only when combined with something nobler does it acquire this deep appeal4 ,it is dangerous to seek to deepen red by an admixture of black1 for black quenches the glow1 or at least reduces it considerably4 ,but there remains brown1 unemotional1 disinclined for movement4 ,an intermixture of red is outwardly barely audible1 but there rings out a powerful inner harmony4 ,skillful blending can produce an inner appeal of extraordinary1 indescribable beauty4 ,the vermilion now rings like a great trumpet1 or thunders like a drum4 ,cool red 7madder7 like any other fundamentally cold colour1 can be deepened--especially by an intermixture of azure4 ,the character of the colour changes2 the inward glow increases1 the active element gradually disappears4 ,but this active element is never so wholly absent as in deep green4 ,there always remains a hint of renewed vigour1 somewhere out of sight1 waiting for a certain moment to burst forth afresh4 ,in this lies the great difference between a deepened red and a deepened blue1 because in red there is always a trace of the material4 ,a parallel in music are the sad1 middle tones of a cello4 ,a cold1 light red contains a very distinct bodily or material element1 but it is always pure1 like the fresh beauty of the face of a young girl4 ,the singing notes of a violin express this exactly in music4 ,warm red1 intensified by a suitable yellow1 is orange4 ,this blend brings red almost to the point of spreading out towards the spectator4 ,but the element of red is always sufficiently strong to keep the colour from flippancy4 ,orange is like a man1 convinced of his own powers4 ,its note is that of the angelus1 or of an old violin4 ,just as orange is red brought nearer to humanity by yellow1 so violet is red withdrawn from humanity by blue4 ,but the red in violet must be cold1 for the spiritual need does not allow of a mixture of warm red with cold blue4 ,violet is therefore both in the physical and spiritual sense a cooled red4 ,it is consequently rather sad and ailing4 ,it is worn by old women1 and in ,china as a sign of mourning4 ,in music it is an ,english horn1 or the deep notes of wood instruments 7e4g4 a bassoon74 ,footnote3 ,among artists one often hears the question1 ,how are you8 answered gloomily by the words ,feeling very violet4 ,the two last mentioned colours 7orange and violet7 are the fourth and last pair of antitheses of the primitive colours4 ,they stand to each other in the same relation as the third antitheses--green and red--i4e41 as complementary colours 7see ,fig4 #b74 ,,figure ,,ii ,second ,pair of antitheses 7physical appeal of complementary ,c and ,d colours7 ,c4 ,red ,green ,third antithesis ,movement of the spiritually extinguished ,first antithesis ,motion within itself ,,circle ,potentiality of motion ,motionlessness ,red ,ex-and concentric movements are absent ,in optical blend ,gray ,in mechanical blend of white and black ,gray ,d4 ,orange ,violet ,fourth antithesis ,arise out of the first antithesis from3 #a4 ,active element of the yellow in red ,orange #b4 ,passive element of the blue in red ,violet ---,orange---,yellow------,red------,blu e---,violet--- ,in excentric ,motion within ,in ,concentric direction itself direction ,as in a great circle1 a serpent biting its own tail 7the symbol of eternity1 of something without end7 the six colours appear that make up the three main antitheses4 ,and to right and left stand the two great possibilities of silence--death and birth 7see ,fig4 #c74 ,,figure ,,iii4 ,a ,yellow _/ _/ _/ ,d ,c ,b ,orange ,green ,b ,white ,black ,c ,d ,red ,violet _/ _/ ,a _/ ,blue ,the antitheses as a circle between two poles1 i4e41 the life of colours between birth and death4 7,the capital letters designate the pairs of antitheses47 ,it is clear that all ,i have said of these simple colours is very provisional and general1 and so also are those feelings 7joy1 grief1 etc47 which have been quoted as parallels of the colours4 ,for these feelings are only the material expressions of the soul4 ,shades of colour1 like those of sound1 are of a much finer texture and awake in the soul emotions too fine to be expressed in words4 ,certainly each tone will find some probable expression in words1 but it will always be incomplete1 and that part which the word fails to express will not be unimportant but rather the very kernel of its existence4 ,for this reason words are1 and will always remain1 only hints1 mere suggestions of colours4 ,in this impossibility of expressing colour in words with the consequent need for some other mode of expression lies the opportunity of the art of the future4 ,in this art among innumerable rich and varied combinations there is one which is founded on firm fact1 and that is as follows4 ,the actual expression of colour can be achieved simultaneously by several forms of art1 each art playing its separate part1 and producing a whole which exceeds in richness and force any expression attainable by one art alone4 ,the immense possibilities of depth and strength to be gained by combination or by discord between the various arts can be easily realized4 ,it is often said that admission of the possibility of one art helping another amounts to a denial of the necessary differences between the arts4 ,this is1 however1 not the case4 ,as has been said1 an absolutely similar inner appeal cannot be achieved by two different arts4 ,even if it were possible the second version would differ at least outwardly4 ,but suppose this were not the case1 that is to say1 suppose a repetition of the same appeal exactly alike both outwardly and inwardly could be achieved by different arts1 such repetition would not be merely superfluous4 ,to begin with1 different people find sympathy in different forms of art 7alike on the active and passive side among the creators or the receivers of the appeal72 but further and more important1 repetition of the same appeal thickens the spiritual atmosphere which is necessary for the maturing of the finest feelings1 in the same way as the hot air of a greenhouse is necessary for the ripening of certain fruit4 ,an example of this is the case of the individual who receives a powerful impression from constantly repeated actions1 thoughts or feelings1 although if they came singly they might have passed by unnoticed4 ,footnote3 ,this idea forms1 of course1 the fundamental reason for advertisement4 ,we must not1 however1 apply this rule only to the simple examples of the spiritual atmosphere4 ,for this atmosphere is like air1 which can be either pure or filled with various alien elements4 ,not only visible actions1 thoughts and feelings1 with outward expression1 make up this atmosphere1 but secret happenings of which no one knows1 unspoken thoughts1 hidden feelings are also elements in it4 ,suicide1 murder1 violence1 low and unworthy thoughts1 hate1 hostility1 egotism1 envy1 narrow patriotism1 partisanship1 are elements in the spiritual atmosphere4 ,footnote3 ,epidemics of suicide or of violent warlike feeling1 etc41 are products of this impure atmosphere4 ,and conversely1 self-sacrifice1 mutual help1 lofty thoughts1 love1 un-selfishness1 joy in the success of others1 humanity1 justness1 are the elements which slay those already enumerated as the sun slays the microbes1 and restore the atmosphere to purity4 ,footnote3 ,these elements likewise have their historical periods4 ,the second and more complicated form of repetition is that in which several different elements make mutual use of different forms4 ,in our case these elements are the different arts summed up in the art of the future4 ,and this form of repetition is even more powerful1 for the different natures of men respond to the different elements in the combination4 ,for one the musical form is the most moving and impressive2 for another the pictorial1 for the third the literary1 and so on4 ,there reside1 therefore1 in arts which are outwardly different1 hidden forces equally different1 so that they may all work in one man towards a single result1 even though each art may be working in isolation4 ,this sharply defined working of individual colours is the basis on which various values can be built up in harmony4 ,pictures will come to be painted--veritable artistic arrangements1 planned in shades of one colour chosen according to artistic feeling4 ,the carrying out of one colour1 the binding together and admixture of two related colours1 are the foundations of most coloured harmonies4 ,from what has been said above about colour working1 from the fact that we live in a time of questioning1 experiment and contradiction1 we can draw the easy conclusion that for a harmonization on the basis of individual colours our age is especially unsuitable4 ,perhaps with envy and with a mournful sympathy we listen to the music of ,mozart4 ,it acts as a welcome pause in the turmoil of our inner life1 as a consolation and as a hope1 but we hear it as the echo of something from another age long past and fundamentally strange to us4 ,the strife of colours1 the sense of balance we have lost1 tottering principles1 unexpected assaults1 great questions1 apparently useless striving1 storm and tempest1 broken chains1 antitheses and contradictions1 these make up our harmony4 ,the composition arising from this harmony is a mingling of colour and form each with its separate existence1 but each blended into a common life which is called a picture by the force of the inner need4 ,only these individual parts are vital4 ,everything else 7such as surrounding conditions7 is subsidiary4 ,the combination of two colours is a logical outcome of modern conditions4 ,the combination of colours hitherto considered discordant1 is merely a further development4 ,for example1 the use1 side by side1 of red and blue1 colours in themselves of no physical relationship1 but from their very spiritual contrast of the strongest effect1 is one of the most frequent occurrences in modern choice of harmony4 ,footnote3 ,cf4 ,gauguin1 ,noa ,noa1 where the artist states his disinclination when he first arrived in ,tahiti to juxtapose red and blue4 ,harmony today rests chiefly on the principle of contrast which has for all time been one of the most important principles of art4 ,but our contrast is an inner contrast which stands alone and rejects the help 7for that help would mean destruction7 of any other principles of harmony4 ,it is interesting to note that this very placing together of red and blue was so beloved by the primitive both in ,germany and ,italy that it has till today survived1 principally in folk pictures of religious subjects4 ,one often sees in such pictures the ,virgin in a red gown and a blue cloak4 ,it seems that the artists wished to express the grace of heaven in terms of humanity1 and humanity in terms of heaven4 ,legitimate and illegitimate combinations of colours1 contrasts of various colours1 the over-painting of one colour with another1 the definition of coloured surfaces by boundaries of various forms1 the overstepping of these boundaries1 the mingling and the sharp separation of surfaces1 all these open great vistas of artistic possibility4 ,one of the first steps in the turning away from material objects into the realm of the abstract was1 to use the technical artistic term1 the rejection of the third dimension1 that is to say1 the attempt to keep a picture on a single plane4 ,modelling was abandoned4 ,in this way the material object was made more abstract and an important step forward was achieved--this step forward has1 however1 had the effect of limiting the possibilities of painting to one definite piece of canvas1 and this limitation has not only introduced a very material element into painting1 but has seriously lessened its possibilities4 ,any attempt to free painting from this material limitation together with the striving after a new form of composition must concern itself first of all with the destruction of this theory of one single surface--attempts must be made to bring the picture on to some ideal plane which shall be expressed in terms of the material plane of the canvas4 ,footnote3 ,compare the article by ,le ,fauconnier in the catalogue of the second exhibition of the ,neue ,kunstlervereinigung1 ,munich1 #aiaj-aa4 ,there has arisen out of the composition in flat triangles a composition with plastic three-dimensional triangles1 that is to say with pyramids2 and that is ,cubism4 ,but there has arisen here also the tendency to inertia1 to a concentration on this form for its own sake1 and consequently once more to an impoverishment of possibility4 ,but that is the unavoidable result of the external application of an inner principle4 ,a further point of great importance must not be forgotten4 ,there are other means of using the material plane as a space of three dimensions in order to create an ideal plane4 ,the thinness or thickness of a line1 the placing of the form on the surface1 the overlaying of one form on another may be quoted as examples of artistic means that may be employed4 ,similar possibilities are offered by colour which1 when rightly used1 can advance or retreat1 and can make of the picture a living thing1 and so achieve an artistic expansion of space4 ,the combination of both means of extension in harmony or concord is one of the richest and most powerful elements in purely artistic composition4 ,,vii4 ,,theory ,from the nature of modern harmony1 it results that never has there been a time when it was more difficult than it is today to formulate a complete theory1 ,footnote3 ,attempts have been made4 ,once more emphasis must be laid on the parallel with music4 ,for example1 cf4 ,tendances ,nouvelles1 ,no4 #ce1 ,henri ,ravel3 ,the laws of harmony are the same for painting and music4 or to lay down a firm artistic basis4 ,all attempts to do so would have one result1 namely1 that already cited in the case of ,leonardo and his system of little spoons4 ,it would1 however1 be precipitate to say that there are no basic principles nor firm rules in painting1 or that a search for them leads inevitably to academism4 ,even music has a grammar1 which1 although modified from time to time1 is of continual help and value as a kind of dictionary4 ,painting is1 however1 in a different position4 ,the revolt from dependence on nature is only just beginning4 ,any realization of the inner working of colour and form is so far unconscious4 ,the subjection of composition to some geometrical form is no new idea 7cf4 the art of the ,persians74 ,construction on a purely abstract basis is a slow business1 and at first seemingly blind and aimless4 ,the artist must train not only his eye but also his soul1 so that he can test colours for themselves and not only by external impressions4 ,if we begin at once to break the bonds which bind us to nature1 and devote ourselves purely to combination of pure colour and abstract form1 we shall produce works which are mere decoration1 which are suited to neckties or carpets4 ,beauty of ,form and ,colour is no sufficient aim by itself1 despite the assertions of pure aesthetes or even of naturalists1 who are obsessed with the idea of beauty4 ,it is because of the elementary stage reached by our painting that we are so little able to grasp the inner harmony of true colour and form composition4 ,the nerve vibrations are there1 certainly1 but they get no further than the nerves1 because the corresponding vibrations of the spirit which they call forth are too weak4 ,when we remember1 however1 that spiritual experience is quickening1 that positive science1 the firmest basis of human thought1 is tottering1 that dissolution of matter is imminent1 we have reason to hope that the hour of pure composition is not far away4 ,it must not be thought that pure decoration is lifeless4 ,it has its inner being1 but one which is either incomprehensible to us1 as in the case of old decorative art1 or which seems mere illogical confusion1 as a world in which full-grown men and embryos play equal roles1 in which beings deprived of limbs are on a level with noses and toes which live isolated and of their own vitality4 ,the confusion is like that of a kaleidoscope1 which though possessing a life of its own1 belongs to another sphere4 ,nevertheless1 decoration has its effect on us2 oriental decoration quite differently to ,swedish1 savage1 or ancient ,greek4 ,it is not for nothing that there is a general custom of describing samples of decoration as gay1 serious1 sad1 etc41 as music is described as ,allegro1 ,serioso1 etc41 according to the nature of the piece4 ,probably conventional decoration had its beginnings in nature4 ,but when we would assert that external nature is the sole source of all art1 we must remember that1 in patterning1 natural objects are used as symbols1 almost as though they were mere hieroglyphics4 ,for this reason we cannot gauge their inner harmony4 ,for instance1 we can bear a design of ,chinese dragons in our dining or bed rooms1 and are no more disturbed by it than by a design of daisies4 ,it is possible that towards the close of our already dying epoch a new decorative art will develop1 but it is not likely to be founded on geometrical form4 ,at the present time any attempt to define this new art would be as useless as pulling a small bud open so as to make a fully blown flower4 ,nowadays we are still bound to external nature and must find our means of expression in her4 ,but how are we to do it8 ,in other words1 how far may we go in altering the forms and colours of this nature8 ,we may go as far as the artist is able to carry his emotion1 and once more we see how immense is the need for true emotion4 ,a few examples will make the meaning of this clearer4 ,a warm red tone will materially alter in inner value when it is no longer considered as an isolated colour1 as something abstract1 but is applied as an element of some other object1 and combined with natural form4 ,the variety of natural forms will create a variety of spiritual values1 all of which will harmonize with that of the original isolated red4 ,suppose we combine red with sky1 flowers1 a garment1 a face1 a horse1 a tree4 ,a red sky suggests to us sunset1 or fire1 and has a consequent effect upon us--either of splendour or menace4 ,much depends now on the way in which other objects are treated in connection with this red sky4 ,if the treatment is faithful to nature1 but all the same harmonious1 the naturalistic appeal of the sky is strengthened4 ,if1 however1 the other objects are treated in a way which is more abstract1 they tend to lessen1 if not to destroy1 the naturalistic appeal of the sky4 ,much the same applies to the use of red in a human face4 ,in this case red can be employed to emphasize the passionate or other characteristics of the model1 with a force that only an extremely abstract treatment of the rest of the picture can subdue4 ,a red garment is quite a different matter2 for it can in reality be of any colour4 ,red will1 however1 be found best to supply the needs of pure artistry1 for here alone can it be used without any association with material aims4 ,the artist has to consider not only the value of the red cloak by itself1 but also its value in connection with the figure wearing it1 and further the relation of the figure to the whole picture4 ,suppose the picture to be a sad one1 and the red-cloaked figure to be the central point on which the sadness is concentrated--either from its central position1 or features1 attitude1 colour1 or what not4 ,the red will provide an acute discord of feeling1 which will emphasize the gloom of the picture4 ,the use of a colour1 in itself sad1 would weaken the effect of the dramatic whole4 ,footnote3 ,once more it is wise to emphasize the necessary inadequacy of these examples4 ,rules cannot be laid down1 the variations are so endless4 ,a single line can alter the whole composition of a picture4 ,this is the principle of antithesis already defined4 ,red by itself cannot have a sad effect on the spectator1 and its inclusion in a sad picture will1 if properly handled1 provide the dramatic element4 ,footnote3 ,the use of terms like sad and joyful are only clumsy equivalents for the delicate spiritual vibrations of the new harmony4 ,they must be read as necessarily inadequate4 ,yet again is the case of a red tree different4 ,the fundamental value of red remains1 as in every case4 ,but the association of autumn creeps in4 ,the colour combines easily with this association1 and there is no dramatic clash as in the case of the red cloak4 ,finally1 the red horse provides a further variation4 ,the very words put us in another atmosphere4 ,the impossibility of a red horse demands an unreal world4 ,it is possible that this combination of colour and form will appeal as a freak--a purely superficial and non-artistic appeal--or as a hint of a fairy story ,footnote3 ,an incomplete fairy story works on the mind as does a cinematograph film4--once more a non-artistic appeal4 ,to set this red horse in a careful naturalistic landscape would create such a discord as to produce no appeal and no coherence4 ,the need for coherence is the essential of harmony--whether founded on conventional discord or concord4 ,the new harmony demands that the inner value of a picture should remain unified whatever the variations or contrasts of outward form or colour4 ,the elements of the new art are to be found1 therefore1 in the inner and not the outer qualities of nature4 ,the spectator is too ready to look for a meaning in a picture--i4e41 some outward connection between its various parts4 ,our materialistic age has produced a type of spectator or connoisseur1 who is not content to put himself opposite a picture and let it say its own message4 ,instead of allowing the inner value of the picture to work1 he worries himself in looking for closeness to nature1 or temperament1 or handling1 or tonality1 or perspective1 or what not4 ,his eye does not probe the outer expression to arrive at the inner meaning4 ,in a conversation with an interesting person1 we endeavour to get at his fundamental ideas and feelings4 ,we do not bother about the words he uses1 nor the spelling of those words1 nor the breath necessary for speaking them1 nor the movements of his tongue and lips1 nor the psychological working on our brain1 nor the physical sound in our ear1 nor the physiological effect on our nerves4 ,we realize that these things1 though interesting and important1 are not the main things of the moment1 but that the meaning and idea is what concerns us4 ,we should have the same feeling when confronted with a work of art4 ,when this becomes general the artist will be able to dispense with natural form and colour and speak in purely artistic language4 ,to return to the combination of colour and form1 there is another possibility which should be noted4 ,non-naturalistic objects in a picture may have a literary appeal1 and the whole picture may have the working of a fable4 ,the spectator is put in an atmosphere which does not disturb him because he accepts it as fabulous1 and in which he tries to trace the story and undergoes more or less the various appeals of colour4 ,but the pure inner working of colour is impossible2 the outward idea has the mastery still4 ,for the spectator has only exchanged a blind reality for a blind dreamland1 where the truth of inner feeling cannot be felt4 ,we must find1 therefore1 a form of expression which excludes the fable and yet does not restrict the free working of colour in any way4 ,the forms1 movement1 and colours which we borrow from nature must produce no outward effect nor be associated with external objects4 ,the more obvious is the separation from nature1 the more likely is the inner meaning to be pure and unhampered4 ,the tendency of a work of art may be very simple1 but provided it is not dictated by any external motive and provided it is not working to any material end1 the harmony will be pure4 ,the most ordinary action--for example1 preparation for lifting a heavy weight--becomes mysterious and dramatic1 when its actual purpose is not revealed4 ,we stand and gaze fascinated1 till of a sudden the explanation bursts suddenly upon us4 ,it is the conviction that nothing mysterious can ever happen in our everyday life that has destroyed the joy of abstract thought4 ,practical considerations have ousted all else4 ,it is with this fact in view that the new dancing is being evolved--as1 that is to say1 the only means of giving in terms of time and space the real inner meaning of motion4 ,the origin of dancing is probably purely sexual4 ,in folk-dances we still see this element plainly4 ,the later development of dancing as a religious ceremony joins itself to the preceding element and the two together take artistic form and emerge as the ballet4 ,the ballet at the present time is in a state of chaos owing to this double origin4 ,its external motives--the expression of love and fear1 etc4--are too material and naive for the abstract ideas of the future4 ,in the search for more subtle expression1 our modern reformers have looked to the past for help4 ,isadora ,duncan has forged a link between the ,greek dancing and that of the future4 ,in this she is working on parallel lines to the painters who are looking for inspiration from the primitives4 ,footnote3 ,kandinsky's example of ,isadora ,duncan is not perhaps perfectly chosen4 ,this famous dancer founds her art mainly upon a study of ,greek vases and not necessarily of the primitive period4 ,her aims are distinctly towards what ,kandinsky calls conventional beauty1 and what is perhaps more important1 her movements are not dictated solely by the inner harmony1 but largely by conscious outward imitation of ,greek attitudes4 ,either ,nijinsky's later ballets3 ,le ,sacre du ,printemps1 ,l',apres-midi d'un ,faune1 ,jeux1 or the idea actuating the ,jacques ,dalcroze system of ,eurhythmics seem to fall more into line with ,kandinsky's artistic forecast4 ,in the first case conventional beauty has been abandoned1 to the dismay of numbers of writers and spectators1 and a definite return has been made to primitive angles and abruptness4 ,in the second case motion and dance are brought out of the souls of the pupils1 truly spontaneous1 at the call of the inner harmony4 ,indeed a comparison between ,isadora ,duncan and ,m4 ,dalcroze is a comparison between the naturalist and symbolist ideals in art which were outlined in the introduction to this book4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 ,in dance as in painting this is only a stage of transition4 ,in dancing as in painting we are on the threshold of the art of the future4 ,the same rules must be applied in both cases4 ,conventional beauty must go by the board and the literary element of story-telling or anecdote must be abandoned as useless4 ,both arts must learn from music that every harmony and every discord which springs from the inner spirit is beautiful1 but that it is essential that they should spring from the inner spirit and from that alone4 ,the achievement of the dance-art of the future will make possible the first ebullition of the art of spiritual harmony--the true stage-composition4 ,the composition for the new theatre will consist of these three elements3 7#a7 ,musical movement 7#b7 ,pictorial movement 7#c7 ,physical movement and these three1 properly combined1 make up the spiritual movement1 which is the working of the inner harmony4 ,they will be interwoven in harmony and discord as are the two chief elements of painting1 form and colour4 ,scriabin's attempt to intensify musical tone by corresponding use of colour is necessarily tentative4 ,in the perfected stage-composition the two elements are increased by the third1 and endless possibilities of combination and individual use are opened up4 ,further1 the external can be combined with the internal harmony1 as ,schonberg has attempted in his quartettes4 ,it is impossible here to go further into the developments of this idea4 ,the reader must apply the principles of painting already stated to the problem of stage-composition1 and outline for himself the possibilities of the theatre of the future1 founded on the immovable principle of the inner need4 ,from what has been said of the combination of colour and form1 the way to the new art can be traced4 ,this way lies today between two dangers4 ,on the one hand is the totally arbitrary application of colour to geometrical form--pure patterning4 ,on the other hand is the more naturalistic use of colour in bodily form--pure phantasy4 ,either of these alternatives may in their turn be exaggerated4 ,everything is at the artist's disposal1 and the freedom of today has at once its dangers and its possibilities4 ,we may be present at the conception of a new great epoch1 or we may see the opportunity squandered in aimless extravagance4 ,footnote3 ,on this question see my article ,uber die ,formfrage--in ,der ,blaue ,reiter 7,piper-,verlag1 #aiab74 ,taking the work of ,henri ,rousseau as a starting point1 ,i go on to prove that the new naturalism will not only be equivalent to but even identical with abstraction4 ,that art is above nature is no new discovery4 ,footnote3 ,cf4 ,goethe1 by ,karl ,heinemann1 #ahii1 p4 #fhd2 also ,oscar ,wilde1 ,de ,profundis2 also ,delacroix1 ,my ,diary4 ,new principles do not fall from heaven1 but are logically if indirectly connected with past and future4 ,what is important to us is the momentary position of the principle and how best it can be used4 ,it must not be employed forcibly4 ,but if the artist tunes his soul to this note1 the sound will ring in his work of itself4 ,the emancipation of today must advance on the lines of the inner need4 ,it is hampered at present by external form1 and as that is thrown aside1 there arises as the aim of composition-construction4 ,the search for constructive form has produced ,cubism1 in which natural form is often forcibly subjected to geometrical construction1 a process which tends to hamper the abstract by the concrete and spoil the concrete by the abstract4 ,the harmony of the new art demands a more subtle construction than this1 something that appeals less to the eye and more to the soul4 ,this concealed construction may arise from an apparently fortuitous selection of forms on the canvas4 ,their external lack of cohesion is their internal harmony4 ,this haphazard arrangement of forms may be the future of artistic harmony4 ,their fundamental relationship will finally be able to be expressed in mathematical form1 but in terms irregular rather than regular4 ,,viii4 ,,art ,,and ,,artists ,the work of art is born of the artist in a mysterious and secret way4 ,from him it gains life and being4 ,nor is its existence casual and inconsequent1 but it has a definite and purposeful strength1 alike in its material and spiritual life4 ,it exists and has power to create spiritual atmosphere2 and from this inner standpoint one judges whether it is a good work of art or a bad one4 ,if its form is bad it means that the form is too feeble in meaning to call forth corresponding vibrations of the soul4 ,footnote3 ,so-called indecent pictures are either incapable of causing vibrations of the soul 7in which case they are not art7 or they are so capable4 ,in the latter case they are not to be spurned absolutely1 even though at the same time they gratify what nowadays we are pleased to call the lower bodily tastes4 ,therefore a picture is not necessarily well painted if it possesses the values of which the ,french so constantly speak4 ,it is only well painted if its spiritual value is complete and satisfying4 ,good drawing is drawing that cannot be altered without destruction of this inner value1 quite irrespective of its correctness as anatomy1 botany1 or any other science4 ,there is no question of a violation of natural form1 but only of the need of the artist for such form4 ,similarly colours are used not because they are true to nature1 but because they are necessary to the particular picture4 ,in fact1 the artist is not only justified in using1 but it is his duty to use only those forms which fulfil his own need4 ,absolute freedom1 whether from anatomy or anything of the kind1 must be given the artist in his choice of material4 ,such spiritual freedom is as necessary in art as it is in life4 ,footnote3 ,this freedom is man's weapon against the ,philistines4 ,it is based on the inner need4 ,note1 however1 that blind following of scientific precept is less blameworthy than its blind and purposeless rejection4 ,the former produces at least an imitation of material objects which may be of some use4 ,footnote3 ,plainly1 an imitation of nature1 if made by the hand of an artist1 is not a pure reproduction4 ,the voice of the soul will in some degree at least make itself heard4 ,as contrasts one may quote a landscape of ,canaletto and those sadly famous heads by ,denner4--7,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich47 ,the latter is an artistic betrayal and brings confusion in its train4 ,the former leaves the spiritual atmosphere empty2 the latter poisons it4 ,painting is an art1 and art is not vague production1 transitory and isolated1 but a power which must be directed to the improvement and refinement of the human soul--to1 in fact1 the raising of the spiritual triangle4 ,if art refrains from doing this work1 a chasm remains unbridged1 for no other power can take the place of art in this activity4 ,and at times when the human soul is gaining greater strength1 art will also grow in power1 for the two are inextricably connected and complementary one to the other4 ,conversely1 at those times when the soul tends to be choked by material disbelief1 art becomes purposeless and talk is heard that art exists for art's sake alone4 ,footnote3 ,this cry art for art's sake1 is really the best ideal such an age can attain to4 ,it is an unconscious protest against materialism1 against the demand that everything should have a use and practical value4 ,it is further proof of the indestructibility of art and of the human soul1 which can never be killed but only temporarily smothered4 ,then is the bond between art and the soul1 as it were1 drugged into unconsciousness4 ,the artist and the spectator drift apart1 till finally the latter turns his back on the former or regards him as a juggler whose skill and dexterity are worthy of applause4 ,it is very important for the artist to gauge his position aright1 to realize that he has a duty to his art and to himself1 that he is not king of the castle but rather a servant of a nobler purpose4 ,he must search deeply into his own soul1 develop and tend it1 so that his art has something to clothe1 and does not remain a glove without a hand4 ,,the ,,artist ,,must ,,have ,,something ,,to ,,say1 ,,for ,,mastery ,,over ,,form ,,is ,,not ,,his ,,goal ,,but ,,rather ,,the ,,adapting ,,of ,,form ,,to ,,its ,,inner ,,meaning4 ,footnote3 ,naturally this does not mean that the artist is to instill forcibly into his work some deliberate meaning4 ,as has been said the generation of a work of art is a mystery4 ,so long as artistry exists there is no need of theory or logic to direct the painter's action4 ,the inner voice of the soul tells him what form he needs1 whether inside or outside nature4 ,every artist knows1 who works with feeling1 how suddenly the right form flashes upon him4 ,bocklin said that a true work of art must be like an inspiration2 that actual painting1 composition1 etc41 are not the steps by which the artist reaches self-expression4 ,the artist is not born to a life of pleasure4 ,he must not live idle2 he has a hard work to perform1 and one which often proves a cross to be borne4 ,he must realize that his every deed1 feeling1 and thought are raw but sure material from which his work is to arise1 that he is free in art but not in life4 ,the artist has a triple responsibility to the non-artists3 7#a7 ,he must repay the talent which he has2 7#b7 his deeds1 feelings1 and thoughts1 as those of every man1 create a spiritual atmosphere which is either pure or poisonous4 7#c7 ,these deeds and thoughts are materials for his creations1 which themselves exercise influence on the spiritual atmosphere4 ,the artist is not only a king1 as ,peladan says1 because he has great power1 but also because he has great duties4 ,if the artist be priest of beauty1 nevertheless this beauty is to be sought only according to the principle of the inner need1 and can be measured only according to the size and intensity of that need4 ,,that ,,is ,,beautiful ,,which ,,is ,,produced ,,by ,,the ,,inner ,,need1 ,,which ,,springs ,,from ,,the ,,soul4 ,maeterlinck1 one of the first warriors1 one of the first modern artists of the soul1 says3 ,there is nothing on earth so curious for beauty or so absorbent of it1 as a soul4 ,for that reason few mortal souls withstand the leadership of a soul which gives to them beauty4 ,footnote3 ,de la beaute interieure4 ,and this property of the soul is the oil1 which facilitates the slow1 scarcely visible but irresistible movement of the triangle1 onwards and upwards4 ,,ix4 ,,conclusion ,the first five illustrations in this book show the course of constructive effort in painting4 ,this effort falls into two divisions3 7#a7 ,simple composition1 which is regulated according to an obvious and simple form4 ,this kind of composition ,i call the ,,melodic4 7#b7 ,complex composition1 consisting of various forms1 subjected more or less completely to a principal form4 ,probably the principal form may be hard to grasp outwardly1 and for that reason possessed of a strong inner value4 ,this kind of composition ,i call the ,,symphonic4 ,between the two lie various transitional forms1 in which the melodic principle predominates4 ,the history of the development is closely parallel to that of music4 ,if1 in considering an example of melodic composition1 one forgets the material aspect and probes down into the artistic reason of the whole1 one finds primitive geometrical forms or an arrangement of simple lines which help toward a common motion4 ,this common motion is echoed by various sections and may be varied by a single line or form4 ,such isolated variations serve different purposes4 ,for instance1 they may act as a sudden check1 or to use a musical term1 a fermata4 ,footnote3 ,e4g41 the ,ravenna mosaic which1 in the main1 forms a triangle4 ,the upright figures lean proportionately to the triangle4 ,the outstretched arm and door-curtain are the fermate4 ,each form which goes to make up the composition has a simple inner value1 which has in its turn a melody4 ,for this reason ,i call the composition melodic4 ,by the agency of ,cezanne and later of ,hodler ,footnote3 ,english readers may roughly parallel ,hodler with ,augustus ,john for purposes of the argument4--,m4,t4,h4,s4 this kind of composition won new life1 and earned the name of rhythmic4 ,the limitations of the term rhythmic are obvious4 ,in music and nature each manifestation has a rhythm of its own1 so also in painting4 ,in nature this rhythm is often not clear to us1 because its purpose is not clear to us4 ,we then speak of it as unrhythmic4 ,so the terms rhythmic and unrhythmic are purely conventional1 as also are harmony and discord1 which have no actual existence4 ,footnote3 ,as an example of plain melodic construction with a plain rhythm1 ,cezanne's ,bathing ,women is given in this book4 ,complex rhythmic composition1 with a strong flavour of the symphonic1 is seen in numerous pictures and woodcuts of the past4 ,one might mention the work of old ,german masters1 of the ,persians1 of the ,japanese1 the ,russian icons1 broadsides1 etc4 ,footnote3 ,this applies to many of ,hodler's pictures4 ,in nearly all these works the symphonic composition is not very closely allied to the melodic4 ,this means that fundamentally there is a composition founded on rest and balance4 ,the mind thinks at once of choral compositions1 of ,mozart and ,beethoven4 ,all these works have the solemn and regular architecture of a ,gothic cathedral2 they belong to the transition period4 ,as examples of the new symphonic composition1 in which the melodic element plays a subordinate part1 and that only rarely1 ,i have added reproductions of four of my own pictures4 ,they represent three different sources of inspiration3 7#a7 ,a direct impression of outward nature1 expressed in purely artistic form4 ,this ,i call an ,impression4 7#b7 ,a largely unconscious1 spontaneous expression of inner character1 the non-material nature4 ,this ,i call an ,improvisation4 7#c7 ,an expression of a slowly formed inner feeling1 which comes to utterance only after long maturing4 ,this ,i call a ,composition4 ,in this1 reason1 consciousness1 purpose1 play an overwhelming part4 ,but of the calculation nothing appears1 only the feeling4 ,which kind of construction1 whether conscious or unconscious1 really underlies my work1 the patient reader will readily understand4 ,finally1 ,i would remark that1 in my opinion1 we are fast approaching the time of reasoned and conscious composition1 when the painter will be proud to declare his work constructive4 ,this will be in contrast to the claim of the ,impressionists that they could explain nothing1 that their art came upon them by inspiration4 ,we have before us the age of conscious creation1 and this new spirit in painting is going hand in hand with the spirit of thought towards an epoch of great spiritual leaders4