The year 2011 marks the centennial of the publication of Wassily Kandinsky's classic text, On the Spiritual in Art. Inspired by this anniversary, this project set out to explore the place of the spiritual in contemporary art and to propose a challenge to the current devaluation of the inner life that prevails within the art world in our market-driven era.

Revisiting Kandsinsky's concerns a century after his book's publication provided us with a useful framing device through which to examine and assess the seeming chasm that has arisen between art and those values that might be considered "spiritual."

In commemorating this anniversary, our larger purpose was to question whether, and in what ways, art might be wrest from the world of entertainment and profit, reunited with the inner life, and restored its rightful status as a uniquely valuable mode of inquiry, knowledge, and insight.

Two forums were established toward this end: the first an online symposium that ran for ten consecutive days in April, and the second a film screening of Nathaniel Dorsky's work, which took place on April 5th, 2011 in New York City. Both events were hosted by the School of Visual Arts.

 


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