The Place of the Abstract
in Art
The New School for Social Research

March 16th 1931

A most interesting phenomena in the study of art is this last contri-
bution - The Abstract.

Only by knowing ones history of art can one realize how radical this
contribution is as compared to the past.

Yes - more radical in its outward and inner expression than existed in
that great swing from the Byzantine to the early Italian Primitives, which
revealed itself more and more as Time went on.

For after all XXXXXXXX the power of thought as Marc in the Manifesto
issued by - Die Blauen Reiter - said - dynamites fortresses.

Let us therefore quickly review certain expressions in art which are
manifesting themselves now, to which I drew your attention at an

and also
earlier lecture had their beginnings in the past and had simply been neglect-
ed and forgotten, and those which are a complete new revelation in art.

For unless we refresh our memories and clearly differentiate, we will be
unable to really realize this amazing contribution.9 to the Abstract in Art.

Thus we find that it is not the rythm or exagerated form, simplification
or even the fluidity and breaking up of surfaces which is the great con-

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tribution of today - but rather the psychology of color and what we term
the Abstract in art. These are not a pattern or design as many Americans
believe them to be, but paintings with a deep philosophical thought or
some emotion which as yet has not been found its manifestation in words.

As I have repeated, said it is foolish to paint abstract when that which
you want to express can be stated in realistic terms. It then becomes
a deliberate desire to confuse, or it is a weak or lazy way of expressing
oneself, and does not belong to great art.

But to review quickly these other forms of expressions which I have mentioned - why do they make their appearances now?

Thought is slow to reach fruition - which means the giving and appreciation
of such an expression by the many instead of the isolated few.

It is the advance guard who break the ground for the future reaping -
for the seed sown ripens slowly and it is in general the lesser men who
in turn bring to the notice of the general public the fruition of that
which has already been sown.

Thus it is possible to trace the fluidity of matter through men like
Matisse and giants like Cezanne, back to El Greco.

Before El Greco there was no fluidity - there was grace of line which

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to the casual observer might be confused for the same thing.

It is marvelous to think that after being bound for centuries by materialism bound by the belief in the solidity of matter - science should come to the aid of art and religion and liberate them from this bondage of matter and enable the spirit to penetrate.

No greater change could have occurred than the change from the belief in the solidity of matter to the belief in the fluidity of matter which the scientists are teaching since the discovery of the electrons which forms matter and which are held together by the affinity of their inner vibration.

I have mentioned it again and again - but I would like to cry it from the housetops - so tremendous this revelation appears to my mind and illuminates much that was before expressed within much which was a closed book to those related to philosophy.

El Greco at the end of the 16th Century was conscious of this great inner revelation which came to him through spiritual ectasy - and thus it was in a recent catalogue on the other day a little startling to have hime mentioned as - an athletic master. But to return to our subject. What El Greco arrived at through intuition the scientists are arriving at today - more than three hundred years later, showing once more that the art of painting precedes that of speech and science.

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The power of thought and the firm belief that solidity of matter existed
explains why during the 19th Century El Greco was lost to the world, hang-
silent and hidden in churches, monasteries and museums.

However, this new conception of light and dark was not introduced
until the 16th century, and it was not until the 19th century that this
idea was fully developed. The first major artist to use it was the French
painter nbert. In 1809, his painting, The Light of the World, was exhibited
in Paris. It was very popular, and it influenced many other artists. By the
middle of the 19th century, light as a concept was beginning to become
widely accepted in painting. In 1838, the French painter Charles-
Perrot introduced the concept of 'light' into drawing. In 1848, the German
painter Johann Wilhelm Tintoretta developed the idea of 'light and dark
succession' into a technique which he called 'chromatic painting'.
This technique was very popular in the 19th century, and it was
widely accepted in painting by the end of the 19th century.

Each new extension of thought power when seeking to find expression in
art seeks a new technique whereby to give birth to this new conception.

Thus El Greco who took the problem of light which Corregio introduced
more than a hundred years earlier and which had not been taken up as
far as we know by any other artists during that period and carried it fur-
ther by not following the conventional lines of light and dark as they
revealed the bone construction which was the method still employed by
all important artists - like Rubens, France Hals etc but followed the
light as it actually travelled over the body. It was an extension of
the problem of light which Rembrandt took up several
fifty years later.

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First the study of light from a lamp introduced by Corregio and given
new significance by having it shine from the Christ Child as a light of
illumination - then El Greco's further contribution and next Rembrandt's
taking the mystery of the shadows and extending them to include the
mysteries of life, which reach such tremendous heights in his picture
of the - Old Woman Pairing Her Nails - where Rembrandt absolutely
eliminates the importance of the subject matter by carrying his
painting into realms where words cannot follow, And yet the press says,
lighted by the sun - in a quiet air.

Just as El Greco took the problem of light and added to it the fluidity
of matter, so Cezanne took the problem of the fluidity of matter to ex-
tend to the solid masses pertaining to the earth and Matisse took it and
added rythm and movement. Thus something new is added to the past
which bespeaks the time in which it is revealed. And each new extension
demands a new technique.

Cezanne achieved his new technique primarily through his new use of
color within color with which he breaks up his surfaces, permitting
the inner urge - the true forces of all living matter to be perceived.
Since this was achieved through color he places a new importance on
color - it becomes an inherent part of the picture and eludes the camera

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which explains why one can only receive suggestions of what the
畫者 are the view in a black and white re-
quality of the pictures is when seeing it in black and white re-
production, whereas formerly one was able to through these photographs of
paintings to receive a very fair impression of what the original was
it was included in the Impressionist show.
like. But at present the camera cannot record accurately the various
color relations and harmonies - the volume and relative values often
are quite erroneous. This may also explain why a picture built on this
new conception of color is difficult for a lay man to enjoy - for our
color sense is not very strongly developed in the average person.

That may also explain why to many the last pictures of Cezanne are so
difficult to understand and appear unfinished to people.

I emphasize these difficulties because it helps some to be more patient
while going through
towards trying to develope an understanding of the abstract in art. further
in creating a new idea.

And why - I am constantly asked should the abstract in art have entered
the realm of art?

Because it is an extension to the subject matter of art when apparently
it has done away with subject matter.

It has done away with realism - but it has extended the realm of what
may be expressed through the art of painting.

For the first time in art subject can be expressed - and a new view
will be expressed by me.

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For those of us who believe that the art of painting and music preceed
speach and science, we believe that great new powerful thoughts can once
more find an outlet for expression and reach many people through the
sences before these same thoughts can find an outlet through words.

For though elementary schooling has done as much harm as good by over-
emphasizing the value of the written word and deadening or belittling the
faculty which functions through the sences and which when highly developed
we call intuition and when weak we call feeling, differentiating the
word feeling from sentiment - there are still many people left who having
always valued the finer stimulation through the sences have kept that
chanel of receptivity pure and are able to receive through music and
painting what they are unable to receive through the written word —
the same degree.

For all forms are mediums of expressions - expressing what - if related
to true art as I define art - expressing in beautiful form some beauti-
ful or heroic thought or spiritual experience.

And here let me emphasize once more what I stated regarding experience
when speaking of the early paintings of Chagall.

Chagall was a rare story teller - without leaving the realm of painting
and entering the realm of literature as so many English and certain class

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of American painters have done - and why is this? Because Chagall experienced his story with his heart and imagination and not with his intellect. He was not telling a story - he was experiencing the sensations which he was depicting in terms of paint.

There is a great deal of confusion here. People think that paintings should not relate to thought or idea.

All art must be a fusion of the emotions and the mind.

Certain wonders can be only perceived at first through the emotions and unless the emotions awaken the mind and the mind organizes the emotions unless there is this interplay between these two - the expressions of art which one gives to the world are very limited and small of statue.

It is this interplay which creates that - Bewusstsein - (that marvelous German word which is rather haltingly translated by - consciousness, for something which includes) - awareness - which is an extension of consciousness.

As we witnessed through all these various manifestos which I took up when speaking of the Russian and German art these men are very conscious that we are entering a new era.

We are very conscious of new concepts entering - the every day world -

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Formerly we believed that the terms of Time and Space were almost inter-
changeable - so closely related were they.

But today through the radio - even the man in the street realizes that
they are not. This great change in the conception of time which the
radio and the telephone has brought about, I cannot emphasize enough.
It has affected our whole mode of thought.

our thought
Not only in general as connected with our daily life - for much of this
by the average person
is only accepted = taken for granted - but especially as regards our
many of the artists are very accessible to other changing conditions,
expression of art. Here we find because the artists as a highly developed
sensitive receptivity that his art has been deeply stirred and influenced
by these new concepts.

I will quote again from Spengler this sentence - "Where heretofore we
believed Time and Space to be related - we realize now that time is only
an arbitrary conception - created by our thinking. A conception which
does not exist in reality."

This separation of time and space has created as I mentioned repeatedly
an entirely new outlook upon art - especially with those who are sensi-
tive to the changes which are happening.

all expressing
the new developed concept
 degree is - Space - Consciousness.

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of giving

With this new approach to space and this new need for expression to art
in space - old forms had to give way.

Please do not confuse this statement.

Art never has to give way - but forms do. For they become the empty symbols of the past. The new forms are the living symbols of the present, expressing it.

It has affected all the arts as I have told you before.

But in the realm of painting it has done away with realism and emphasized the abstract. That is why the abstract is an interplay of the emotions and the mind and not as some think - purely an intellectual achievement.

Great emphasis should be laid upon the fact that great art is the expression of the THOUGHT) POWER or THOUGHT) CULTURE prevalent at the time of its manifestation.

Therefore if we live in a group who have little souls we will have little art. That is why the conscious direction of the artist towards his work is so essential. His unification emotionally and mentally is therefore of the utmost importance.

But if he has no conscious direction and no unification - what chance has his talent - it is scattered to the four winds, as matter has great

And that is the tragedy I find here in America in all direction - we have

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as much talent as exists anywhere in Europe - but for some reason our artists have so little directions and there are so few leaders for the younger men to - not follow - but to perceive how they achieved what was achieved. We seem to have lost our way or be content with so little that we are driven first by this wind and then by the next.

I remember ever since I was eighteen I prayed that I would have the clarity of vision to recognize the limitation of my talent and not litter the world with daubs. The sight of these older people especially women who were cluttering the art schools still studying at the age of thirty and forty sickened me.

Not even my study in France gave the direction - it was Germany that made me realize my direction. I always felt that Professor Britsch went into a well stacked attic and cleared away all the rubish so that we could see what was what. It was a fine piece of work he did for all of us who had the privilege of working under him.

But after all I belong to a far back generation which achieved international reputation as an artist before the war. Which almost makes one feel that it was a previous incarnation so far away those days appear. But the thing of interest is that it is the Europeans primarily who recognize the artist in me - whereas here in America

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my social position or what I do for other artists takes first im-
portance. I only mention this as an illustration to draw attention
to the fact that we as a nation have much to clear away of mental
rubbish. For we must rise to the point that art is essential and
recognize it even if the dealers do not tell us about it. But if
we value social position and independent means above art - we have
very small souls - and are putting the cart before the horse - for
the creative mind rises away above these in value.

But this lack of direction which I was so conscious of more than
25 years ago in Paris has given way to very definite directions in
group forms. The first to give forth their manifesto were the Cubist
of France followed very closely by the Futurists of Italy and Die
Blauen Reiter of Germany and the Russian Jack of Diamonds.

Appollinaire was the spokesman of the Cubist as well as Gleize and
Metsinger and that ₩ That's an odd dynamic figure - Marenetti for the Futurists
Marc and Kandinsky for Die Blauen Reiter and Burluk who is now here
for Russia and the Jack of Diamonds.

The Surealists are voicing themselves in Paris - and for all I know
some other young energetic group - for they are all the time springing
into existence. But the older French men, like Picasso, Braque etc have
practically fallen back into the old individual method.........