Kandinsky's Abstract Art Theory And Its Influence On Modern Design Concept

Wassily Kandinsky(Ba(?),1866-1944)was an abstract painter and art theorist born in Russia.He is the founder of the Twentieth Century Western Modern Abstract Art,a pioneer of Modern Art Revolution,and one of the primary"formation masters" at Germany Bauhaus Academy,which is called "the cradle of world modern design".The most outstanding artistic achievement of Kandinsky focused on his abstract art theory:"Concerning The Spiritual in Art",a book known as the "Bible" and "Revelation" of the modern abstract art,and "Point and Line to Plane",a work regarded as "masterpiece as form aesthetics".They both have a wide and profound influence on modern abstract painting and modern design.His abstract art theory is based on the principle of "inner needs",and its main aesthetic properties are"subjectivity" and "expressiveness".At present,China's design has suffered a "Made in China" bottleneck,and the designing world has been plagued by creativity insufficiency,and there has been a great surge in re-examining,and referring to the Bauhaus modern design concept.As an important member of the Bauhaus,Kandinsky's abstract art theory and its influence on modern design concept are worth a combing with the spirits of our contemporary times.In this paper,I hope to bring about some reflections on China's contemporary design problems,setting the ball roiling,through the discussions of his historical value,realistic significance and theoretical limitations.This dissertation meanly consists of three parts:an introduction,a body part and a conclusion.The introduction discusses the research background,the current research overview,the research methods,research objectives and innovations of the thesis.The first part begins with interpretation of the main difference between the former research on Kandinsky and this research,which is,from the interdisciplinary perspective of painting and design discipline,a research on the relationship between Kandinsky's abstract art theory and modern design concept and its influence on modern design concept.Secondly,it chiefly introduces the background of Kandinsky and his major artistic achievements.The second part introduces,in classifying details,the present situations of the research at home and abroad,the results of which are mainly concentrated in his effects on modern painting theories and practice,while scarcely in works similar with this paper.Although there are some insightful conclusions related to this paper,they are often found scattering in writings of design,aesthetics,design aesthetics,Bauhaus books,etc.On the current situations of foreign research,Russia,in recent years,has paid more attention to the comprehensive study on Kandinsky,and in addition,some western countries began to make more efforts to study Bauhaus school systematically,including the deep research on the relationship between Kandinsky and Bauhaus and modern design.As for the domestic research results,experts and scholars in the field of design and aesthetics have realized the important status and influence of Kandinsky,nevertheless,the relevant special,and systematic research has yet to be strengthened.The third part summarizes the research methods,objectives and innovations,and hereby explains theoretical and practical value of this paper.The first chapter discusses the aesthetic origin of Kandinsky's abstract art theory.Firstly,it analyzes the cultural and artistic background of Kandinsky's abstract art theory.The spiritual nourishment of Russian culture and art brought him the abstract thinking,the creative motifs,the enlightenment on the form and style.The impact and accumulation.of the western modern painting,led to Kandinsky's overall revolution,which is from the inner spirit to the external form,and promoted his art to an essential transformation from the concrete to the abstract.Cultural nourishment is deep in the bone,while the impact of painting's artistic change has accumulated the formal and spiritual power,they two together gave birth to the revolutionary characteristics of Kandinsky's "abstract art theory".Second,it has probed the aesthetic root of Kandinsky's abstract art theory.Kant's subjectivity theory about the nature of beauty,the spirit of "freedom" and the "rational theology" inspired him to think about the"subjectivity" of art and the speculation on rational forms.Hegel put the "absolute idea" and the "spirit" in the first place of his ideological system,which brought the aesthetic inspiration and support for Kandinsky's abstract artistic theoretical core,that is,the "inner spirit" is the soul of art.Nietzsche's "subjectivity" and "Dionysian Spirit"thoughts and his prophecy about social upheaval,is to boost the Kandinsky's"subjectivity" of art spirit and meanwhile to bring about the elimination of objectivity,he hoped to reconstruct a new era "spiritual tower" through the way of art.For Bergson and Croce,Kandinsky absorbed the "philosophy of life" and the core concept of "intuition" and "expression",which makes it possible to appeal to the intuitive choice as "the root of art forms",and created an expressive visual composition via the intuition of mind,so that the modernism concept of "expression" has the ontological foundation.Theosophical mysticism and the ideas about the constructing laws of nature and the universe were promoting Kandinsky's abstract art forms and composing concept,guided him through the path of art abstraction.Worringer,the German felt the budding of abstract aesthetic in moderb art,and demonstrated in his"abstraction and empathy" a book,the existence of abstract impulse,and triggered a subversion of space and time concept in art,and the variation of the empathic aesthetic to the abstract aesthetic.Worringer's "intuition","expression" and"abstraction" were developed by Kandinsky as the "expressive abstraction" and the"constructive abstraction".This has become the primary aesthetic characteristic of Kandinsky's abstract art theory,and has deeply influenced the aesthetic thoughts and concept of modern art and design in twentieth Century.In the second chapter,the author explored Kandinsky's.abstract art theory and its transformative direction,and reflected on the transformative achievements he had brought to the modern design.This is an important part,sorting out systematically its significance and meaning based on his abstract art theory.After the study,the following four aspects are found to represent the transforming characteristics of his abstract art theory:the construction of the abstract visual language system,the"structural" plastic transformation,the concept of "composition" as evolution of the aesthetic spirits,and the aesthetic prospect in the comprehensive view of the arts.He detached from the adherence to objects,and completed the construction of the abstract art visual language system with "point" "line" "plane" and the "color language"endowed with the artists' subjective will.His "structural" plastic transformed the traditional plastic concept and the aesthetic concept,hence the plastic has been transformed from three-dimension to two-dimension.His constructive concept with the "inner needs" as its basic principle revolutionized the whole composition of the picture,thus the aesthetic spirits has undergone a fundamental revolution.A comprehensive view of the arts advocating for crossing disciplines brought new ideas for exploring an international and adaptable art languages and promoted a combination of art and media,which can enrich aesthetic forms and had tremendous aesthetic prospectiveness.The transformation of these four aspects of his abstract art theory had become an important ladder of reforming from traditional design to modern design,which had a far-reaching impact on the modern design.The third chapter is the essence of this paper--what is the impact of the transforming achievement of Kandinsky's abstract art theory on the modern design concept.First of all,with the interpretation of Kandinsky's prominent position in Bauhaus School-the birth place of modern design education,and with his construction of the moderm curriculum foundation of design education system,it is proved and illustrated that he had had profound influence on the modern design education and modern design concept.Secondly,Kandinsky's "subjectivity" principle in his abstract art theory has made great contributions to developing the "creativity" as a prior teaching idea in modern design.The "original spirit" has become the most important feature of modern design,the "subjectivity" also endows with the spiritual value of "meaning",which is helpful to realize the perfect unity of product functions and spiritual values.The principle of subjectivity brings the creativity of modern design to a climax.Moreover,one of Kandinsky's important contributions is to transform the modern design to the two-dimension aesthetic.His "plane form aesthetics" promotes the realization of his ideas-"the new unity of art and technology" in modern design,which breaks the barrier between art and life.In the end,Kandinsky's concept of composition involves the abstract thinking mode of modern design,which has become a basic way of thinking in modern design.It can be said that Kandinsky has changed the form of design language,the form and the composition of the plastic,created the new design thinking pattern and creating measures,and became "the spinal cord" of modern design.These achievements have gradually evolved,in the long history,to a "new" artistic tradition,modern design has thus been evolved from it,and passed on as the heritage,the design aesthetic has undergone great changes,upside down,could even become the lasting artistic tradition.The fourth chapter goes further from the important influence of Kandinsky abstract art theory on the modern design theory,focuses on the following two aspects:first,the influence of Kandinsky's abstract art theory on modern design and practice.His abstract art theory has been widely spread in the field of modern design and influencing the modern design theories and practice around the world.Second,it is the influence of Kandinsky's abstract art theory on Chinese modern design and practice.It is mainly about the promotion of the "modernity" in Chinese design,the aesthetic complementation of the "abstract feature" in Chinese traditional art,and the promotion of the aesthetic fusion of Chinese modern painting and design.The fifth chapter reviews the aesthetic value and theoretical limitations of Kandinsky's modern design aesthetic thoughts.Its aesthetic value has mainly the following three points:first,the "inner spirit" has become a "meaning" in modern design,enriching the aesthetic images and the "original" spirit of design;second,Kandinsky's "musical" design language has promoted the linguistic transform of western aesthetics,a new design language and system has produced and brought about new aesthetic ideal and new aesthetic experience;third,Kandinsky's abstract art theory has facilitated the aesthetic combination of constructivism and modern design,contributing to the aesthetic expression and the diversity of media aesthetic forms.The limitations of the theory are as follows:first,the modern design aesthetic thoughts fall into multiple paradoxes,whose solutions need to be explored;second,the mutual transformation of a contradiction between Kandinsky's modern design form language and the " inner spirit" needs to be reconciled.The conclusion focuses on two questions:first,what are the values of Kandinsky's abstract art theory to modern design concept.It is a summary of this paper.The "inner spirit" revolution in his abstract art theory and a series of ensuing revolutions from the abstract visual language system,plastic concept to composition concept,have promoted modern design concept,and steered the design transformation from"classical" to "modern",which is the foundation of the basic direction of the mode4n design development.Second,the prospect of its significance of Kandinsky' abstract art theory to China's contemporary design,is the first swallow of the spring,hoping to explore the inspiration and wisdom of the modern design concept in regard with the Chinese contemporary spirits,and to point out the shortcomings as well,hoping to bring some new thinking and enlightenment to a successful transformation of Chinese contemporary design to "Created in China" and "Intelligent Made in China".