The spirituality of art after Kandinsky

Abstract

_{Wassily Kandinsky defined the character of the spirituality of modern art and outlined its territory, becoming, along with Duchamp, a patron of various trends in modern art. The notion of the spirituality of art has proved to be an important characteristic feature of works of art. It figures prominently in the writings of art historians, theologians, and aestheticians, and it seems to correspond to Charles Taylor’s conceptions of epiphanic art. Nevertheless, the very notion of the spirituality of art is far from clearly defined: it can refer to the spiritual nature of an artwork itself or to the creative process, or to the spirituality of a work of art that can be determined by its theological context. In this paper I have compared several distinct readings of the notion of the spirituality of art, with Kandinsky’s thought constituting the frame of reference for the interpretations of the works of Rothko and Viola.}