The Spiritual in Twentieth-Century Art

This compelling history examines the spiritual content of 20th-century art. Focusing on the works of such renowned painters as Kandinsky, Mondrian, Klee, Picasso, Braque, Duchamp, Matisse, and Brancusi, the author interprets each creation within the context of its conception. Letters, diaries, and interviews provide insights into the artists' views. 121 black-and-white illustrations.

Roger Lipsey holds a PhD in art history from New York University. He is the publisher of Parabola magazine and director of the Society for Myth and Tradition.

List of Illustrations

xi

Preface and Acknowledgments

xxi

1 Introduction

1

(20)

What Is the Spiritual?

6

(5)

What Is the Spiritual in Art?

11

(5)

Eyes for Art

16

(5)

2 Abstraction: A Religious Art-Sometimes

21

(8)

3 Early Guides

29

(11)

Paul Cézanne: The Master of Us All

30

(2)

The First Alternative Culture: Theosophy and Anthroposophy

32

(34)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

32

(5)

Rudolf Steiner

37

(3)

4 Wassily Kandinsky in the Years of On the Spiritual in Art

40

(11)

5 Cubism

51

(15)

6 Piet Mondrian: The Universal Towers Above Us

66

(24)

Mondrian's Ideas

66

(12)

Mondrian's Art

78

(12)

7 Orphism: Giving All to the Sun

90

(17)

Robert Delaunay: Let Us Seek to See

90

(8)

František Kupka: The Realm of Rhythms and Signs

98

(9)

8 Marcel Duchamp: Burning Up All Aesthetics

107

(10)

9 Chance

117

(12)

10 The Russian Avant-Garde: Idea and Ideology

129

(45)

Kasimir Malevich: A Single Bare and Frameless Icon of Our Times

131

(22)

Constructivism: Intellectual-Material Production

153

(15)

The Unseen Victor: Heroic Realism

168

(2)

Russians Abroad, and an Afterword

170

(4)

11 Paul Klee: Closer to the Center

174

(19)

Paul Klee's Lecture

174

(6)

Joys of the Apprentice, Sorrows of the Journeyman

180

(4)

Paul Klee's Art

184

(9)

12 The Bauhaus: Part Shooting Gallery, Part "Metaphysicum Abstractum"

193

(15)

13 Kandinsky at the Bauhaus: A Block of Ice with a Flame Inside

208

(17)

14 Constantin Brancusi: Negating the Labyrinth

225

(22)

The Life and Art

226

(14)

Brancusi's Thought: The Laws of Craiova

240

(7)

15 Henri Matisse: In the Studio with Three Floors

247

(25)

Matisse's Thought: Beneath the Succession of Moments

248

(9)

Matisse's Art: Happy Those Who Sing

257

(15)

16 The Mediterranean Ethos: Fill the Cup and Again Cry

272

(27)

Matisse

275

(2)

Picasso

277

(9)

Moore

286

(10)

The Future of the Past

296

(3)

17 American Epiphany

299

(36)

Jackson Pollock: We're on Our Own, Goddamit!

302

(5)

Mark Rothko: They Are Not Pictures

307

(13)

Morris Louis: Veils

320

(6)

Ad Reinhardt: Late Afternoon Absorbent Twilight

326

(9)

18 Isamu Noguchi: To Comfort Us with the Reality of Our Being

335

(21)

Great Good Fortune

337

(9)

Only Stones

346

(7)

The Invocation Is Still to God

353

(3)

19 Modest Masters

356

(25)

Ben Nicholson: Abstract Art-Powerful, Unlimited

356

(5)

Giorgio Morandi: A Meditation on Visibility

361

(5)

Julius Bissier: Falling into One's Own Essence

366

(7)

Georgia O'Keeffe: Cutting Sharply to the Center

373

(5)

Et Al.

378

(3)

20 The Photographers

381

(24)

21 Seekers and Brats: Art in Recent Years

405

(30)

22 The Marketplace and the Studio

435

(9)

The Laws of the Marketplace

436

(2)

The Laws of the Studio

438

(2)

Walk of Life and Career

440

(4)

23 Enlightened Patronage: Dag Hammarskjöld at the UN

444

(17)

24 Burning in the Light: Art and Teachings in Our Time

461

(14)

Two Streams

461

(7)

The Craft Tradition

468

(3)

The Duty to Deal in Essentials

471

(4)

Notes

475

(22)

Acknowledgments to Publishers

497

(2)

Bibliography

499

(12)

Index

511

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The Spiritual in Twentieth-Century Art

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials