Some questions to ponder about Art and Spirituality for the discussion on May 3rd.
Eleanor Heartney starts her chapter on Art and Spirituality discussing the split between art and religion in the late nineteenth century.
Is there a difference between spirituality and religion? How do you define spirituality? How do you define religion?
Do art and spirituality ask the same fundamental philosophical questions (i.e. why are we here, what is the meaning of life, do we have a purpose) and is the truth they are seeking the same truth? Is it possible for art and the artistic process to be split from spirituality?
Religious symbols are a powerful statement when used artistically. Do they take the viewer out of the work and back into the world, as Kandinsky proclaims, and prevent the viewer from finding the inner truth in the work?
Can the inner spirit, or soul, or consciousness or truth be manifested in the artwork without resorting to the use of the symbols and beauty, etc of the material world? If so, how?
Can a work of art transport the viewer into a spiritually altered state of consciousness? Kandinsky writes about a spiritual vibration that comes through the work and becomes the inner value of the work. Is there such thing?
“The work of art is born of the artist in a mysterious and secretive way. From him it gains life and being. Nor is its existence casual and inconsequential, but it has a definite and purposeful strength, alike in its material and spiritual life. It exists and has the power to create spiritual atmosphere; and from this inner standpoint one judges whether it is a good work of art or a bad one.” Can an artwork be judged based on its ability to ‘speak to the soul’ as Kandinsky writes?
Can making a work of art transport the artist into a spiritually altered state of consciousness? Can the work portray the spiritual journey of the artist to the viewer on a spiritual level?
How does Kandinsky’s essay relate to Walter Benjamin’s article read earlier in the semester called Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction and his theories on whether art has an aura?
Is consciousness the same as spirituality? The same as the soul?
