It is an age of feverish activities, brilliant imaginings, profound emotions.
Hence our art will not be placid, but will be an art of the imagination and the emotions.
Venturesome souls will not be content to paint things, or even people, but they will paint themselves, not their outer selves, but their inner; they will put on canvas what they feel. That is as near the final word in art as man can utter—to paint instead of speak his most subtle emotions.
In a recent article[50] Kandinsky summarises part of his theory as follows:
A work of art consists of two elements, the inner and the outer.
The inner is the emotion in the soul of the artist. This emotion has the power to arouse a similar feeling in the soul of the observer.
The soul being connected with the body it is affected through the medium of the senses—feelings; emotions are stirred and aroused by sensations. Hence our sensations are the bridge, the physical connection between the immaterial, the emotion in the soul of the artist, to the material, resulting in the production of the work of art.
And again the sensations are the bridge from the material, the artist, and his work, to the immaterial, emotion in the soul of the observer.
The sequence is, emotion (in artist)—sensations—work—sensations—emotion (in observer).