Spiritual ascent and the sublime in the abstract art of Kandinsky and Reinhardt

Abstract

This paper is about the possible relation between aesthetic experience of the sublime, as presented in On Sublime by Pseudo-Longinus, and aesthetic experience of abstract art according to W. Kandinsky and A. Reinhardt. The analysis confirms the complementarity of Pseudo-Loninus?s description of the sublime and the idea of spiritual ascent provoked by the arts, which is characteristic for both of these painters. The analysis of their writings also points towards the necessary relation between abstract painting and spiritual ascent. In the final section of the paper, this idea is taken over as an impulse for reconsidering of the aesthetical category of the sublime. Finally, resulting conclusion leads towards the legitimizing of the (new) revitalization of the sublime, on the grounds of the impulses coming from the arts.