[en] Already a century has gone by since Kandinsky painted his frst abstract watercolor (1910), and yet abstract art is still incomprehensible to the general public. To some extent, this situation has been caused by the reductionist point of view which attempted to explain abstract art assuming mainly that abstract forms are nothing but fgurative forms reduced to their minimal and essential parts. However, considering other aspects which are contemporary with the birth of abstract art (like atonal music or the new physics), and also approaching the issue from a new and interdisciplinary perspective, it is possible to provide a new and more comprehensive explanation of abstract art. Focussing on the painter Wassily Kandinsky this PhD Tesis presents, in an explanatory rather than conclusive way, an answer to why abstract art was born. In order to take into account answers already put forward in the existing literature, and also to open up new lines of research, this Tesis explains abstract art from four perspectives, thus providing four diferent ways of interpretation. Te frst one is the interpretation of abstract language as formal minimalism and is based on the standard reductionist model, but adds the direct relation within a historical context and emphasizes events exterior to the sphere of painting, like the birth of quantum physics. Te second interpretation approaches abstraction as an expression of inner content, and reveals the possibility that formal reduction does not necessarily involve sensory reduction, proving that the inner world of the artist can be expressed in a multisensorial way just by using the minimal forms. Te third one interprets abstract forms as bearers of a spiritual experience, proving that art and its development are closely linked to the evolution of society. Te fourth and last interpretation, placed under the umbrella of neuroesthetics, presents an innovative hypothesis: Kandinsky's synaesthesia, as a neurological condition, might have been decisive for the creation of abstract art.

[es] Un siglo despu?s de que Kandinsky pintara su primera acuarela abstracta (1910), el arte abstracto sigue siendo incomprensible para el gran p?blico. A esta situaci?n ha contribuido, en cierta medida, la visi?n reduccionista con la que se ha intentado explicar el arte abstracto, dando casi por supuesto que las formas abstractas son s?lo una reducci?n de las formas fgurativas a sus esencias m?nimas. Sin embargo, considerando otros aspectos coet?neos al nacimiento del arte abstracto (como la m?sica o la nueva f?sica) y acerc?ndose al tema desde una perspectiva nueva e interdisciplinar, es posible ofrecer una explicaci?n del arte abstracto m?s cercana y completa. Esta Tesis doctoral presenta, desde un formato explicativo y no conclusivo, una respuesta al porqu? de la abstracci?n centrada en el pintor Wassily Kandinsky. Para considerar las respuestas que ya recoge la bibliograf?a existente y adem?s abrir nuevas l?neas de investigaci?n, la Tesis explica el arte abstracto desde cuatro perspectivas, ofreciendo cuatro l?neas diferentes de interpretaci?n. La primera entiende el arte abstracto como minimalismo formal, a?adiendo la relaci?n directa con el contexto hist?rico y el peso de los acontecimientos ajenos al mundo de la pintura, como el nacimiento de la f?sica cu?ntica. La segunda se centra en la abstracci?n como expresi?n de un contenido interior y revela la posibilidad de una reducci?n formal que no implica una reducci?n sensorial. La tercera interpreta las formas abstractas como portadoras de una experiencia espiritual, demostrando que el arte y su desarrollo est?n estrechamente vinculados a la evoluci?n de la sociedad. La cuarta y ?ltima interpretaci?n parte de los nuevos descubrimientos de la neuroest?tica, y presenta una hip?tesis innovadora: la sinestesia de Kandinsky, en tanto condici?n neurol?gica, pudo ser determinante para la creaci?n del arte abstracto.