A facsimile edition of the Russian abstractionist's legendary text on
form and its emotional effects on the viewer
In 1911, Russian painter and theorist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
published his seminal treatise Concerning the Spiritual in Art; over a
decade later, in 1926, he debuted the text's de facto sequel, Point and
Line to Plane. In the latter volume, Kandinsky further develops the
ideas that would come to inform not only the Bauhaus School but many
other artistic movements: he theorizes that different constellations of
point, line and surface have different emotional effects on the viewer.
With the singular point as the most minimal graphic form, Kandinsky
understands all painterly efforts as an extrapolation of forces and
counterforces. This focus on contrasts and the effects of form can
easily be seen as contemporary today.
As part of the publisher's ongoing Bauhausbücher series, Lars Müller
has released a facsimile edition of Kandinsky's text translated into
English with the original design and typography.