Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Concerning the Spiritual in Art is a treatise on art and aesthetics written by the Russian nonobjective painter Wassily Kandinsky in 1910. Originally published in German and translated into English in 1914, the short book is often considered a manifesto of the modern art movement and greatly influenced the direction of art in the 20th century.

Kandinsky, considered one of the pioneers of abstract (or nonobjective) painting, explains and defends the ideas behind his art as well as offers suggestions for the future. In the first part of the book, he argues that art should be freed from its traditional role of representation, or depicting visible and material reality. Instead, artists should seek to evoke emotions purely through color and form. Whereas artists of the past sought to embody abstract ideas and emotions in concrete representations of the material world, artists of the future should seek to communicate their inner emotional and spiritual life directly through color, shape, and line. Kandinsky argues that civilization as a whole is moving away from a “materialistic” and toward a “spiritual” conception of life and implies that the mystical insights of art are just as valid as those of science.