The more abstract is form, the more clear and direct its appeal.
Interpretation
Abstract forms can communicate ideas more clearly and directly than representational forms.
Wassily Kandinsky's quote suggests that when form becomes more abstract, it often has a greater ability to connect with people on an emotional or intellectual level. This idea relates to the power of abstraction in art, where simplification and distortion can evoke deeper feelings and thoughts by stripping away unnecessary details, allowing the essence of the work to shine through.
In practice
In an art class, one might start a discussion about Kandinsky's philosophy on abstraction.
The true work of art is born from the 'artist': a mysterious, enigmatic, and mystical creation. It detaches itself from him, it acquires an autonomous life, becomes a personality, an independent subject, animated with a spiritual breath, the living subject of a real existence of being.
The artist must have something to say, for mastery over form is not his goal but rather the adapting of form to its inner meaning.
With cold eyes and indifferent mind the spectators regard the work. Connoissers admire the "skill" (as one admires a tightrope walker), enjoy the "quality of painting" (as one enjoys a pasty). But hungry souls go hungry away. The vulgar herd stroll through the rooms and pronounce the pictures "nice" or "splendid." Those who could speak have said nothing, those who could hear have heard nothing.
The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with bass notes or dark lake with treble.
All methods are sacred if they are internally necessary. All methods are sins if they are not justified by internal necessity.
Every man who steeps himself in the spiritual possibilities of his heart is a valuable helper in the building of the spiritual pyramid which will someday reach to heaven.
Never apologize for your cooking.
I think it's our job to write about what we're going through at the moment, and being 41, I'm not going to write about the same things I wrote about at 20. I don't think artists should be farmed out to pasture just because they're in rock n' roll.
In the future, everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.
What has our culture lost in 1980 that the avant-garde had in 1890? Ebullience, idealism, confidence, the belief that there was plenty of territory to explore, and above all the sense that art, in the most disinterested and noble way, could find the necessary metaphors by which a radically changing culture could be explained to its inhabitants.
Fantasy isn't just a jolly escape: It's an escape, but into something far more extreme than reality, or normality. It's where things are more beautiful and more wondrous and more terrifying. You move into a world of conflicting extremes.
If something comes along that is totally outside of horror, fine, but I find there's an immense amount of freedom within the genre.
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