The Idea of Abstraction in German Theories of the Ornament from Kant to Kandinsky

Author(s): David Morgan

Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Summer, 1992), pp. 231-
242
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 DAVID MORGAN
The Idea of Abstractionin GermanTheoriesof the
Ornamentfrom Kantto Kandinsky
In 1905 the art critic ArthurRoessler wrote that
he had seen a numberof drawingsby the Neu-
Dachau painter Adolf Hoelzel in which the
"spiritual and mental movements of the artist
fromdifferentperiodsof his life were arrested."'
These drawings, Roessler continued, "formthe
abstractornament;abstractin the sense of non-
objective."2Roessler'scommentsprovidea help-
ful clue in pointing to ornament as a primary
avenue by which 'abstraction' became under-
stood as a non-representationalimage or pic-
torial procedure. By the end of the nineteenth
century, discussion of the ornamentalor deco-
rative introduced into critical discourse about
paintingthe idea that the visual arts could oper-
ate in a fully artistic way without employing
representationaltechniques. Since the late eigh-
teenthcentury,however,considerationsof orna-
ment have made importantcontributionsto the
discussion of the nature of representationand
beauty. I will show how the modern notion of
abstractionemergedfrom a theoreticaldiscourse
on ornamentthat focused on three of the most
basic themes in nineteenth-centuryGermanart
theory: form, style, and empathy.I offer neither
an exhaustive treatmentof the theory of orna-
ment nor a representativesurvey of its history,
but a selective investigation which attempts to
understandcertain aspects of the role ornament
playedin theoreticalreflections on art.3
I. THEORIES OF FORM,
STYLE, AND ORNAMENT
The idea thatcertain forms are inherentlypleas-
ant, withoutreferenceto anythingelse, is hardly
a new one. But among the earliest modernwrit-
ers to highlight this capacity of ornamentation
were Karl Philipp Moritz and Immanuel Kant.
The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism 50:3 Summer 1992
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Writingtheir majorworkson aestheticsbetween
1785 and 1793, these two Prussianscholarseach
defined beauty as free of any purpose beyond
itself.
Moritz believed that the beautiful object sig-
nified nothing beyond itself. "The truly beau-
tiful consists of the object which signifies only
itself, designatesitself, encloses itself, is a whole
complete in itself."4 For Moritz, beauty was
characterized by the fusion of meaning and
form. "The form of a vase," he claimed, "gen-
erates itself from the naturalidea of holding."5
Idea and visual structureare seamlessly joined.
Moritz annexed this idealist view to a no less
idealist preference for delineation or contour,
which, like Kant, he identifiedas the essence of
representation.Contourservedto isolate or sep-
arate, to set out form. Accordingto Moritz, the
more a thing isolated itself within its own con-
tour and contained within itself its center of
gravity, "the less accidental, the less subordi-
nate to some other and mixed with it" was the
form.6 In the early 1790s, Moritz applied this
principleto ornamentand broke down the tradi-
tional distinctionbetweenthe decorativeand the
fine arts. Ornament,we read, is best explained
on the principleof isolation.
Thebeautyof theframeandthebeautyof thepicture
proceedfromoneandthesameprinciple.Thepicture
presents[darstellen]
somethingcompletein itself;the
frameenclosesonce againthatwhichis completein
itself.7
The frame, Moritz wrote in his Vorbegriffezu
einer Theorie der Ornamente, "expands exter-
nally in order that we may as it were gradually
peer into the inner sanctum which glimmers
throughthis enclosure."8This imageforeshadows
232
Philipp Otto Runge's use of the ornamented
framein his Tageszeitenseries of engravingsand
paintingsa decade later. As the revelatorychar-
acterof his languagesuggests, Moritzheld orna-
ment in high esteem, suggesting that it not only
possessed the ability to refine taste and arouse
the soul, but constituteda "noble impulseof the
soul" and an impulse which was as beneficial as
the impulseto science or "high art."9
Accordingly,Moritz subsumedornamentand
fine art under the single category of the "im-
pulse toward beauty." To the objection that
ornamentmay not possess a self-containedpur-
pose inasmuchas it serves the purpose of deco-
rating anotherobject, Moritz would reply that
the ornamentand the 'ornamented'object serve
a single purpose. The frame, for instance, is but
an extension of the picture, yet anothermeans of
self-isolation. Furthermore,Moritz was able to
overcome the traditionaldistinction of fine and
appliedart becausehe replacedthe idea of imita-
tion as the end of art with thatof the "pleasure"
derived from forgetting oneself in contempla-
tion of a complete aesthetic whole.'0 This al-
lowed him to fuse the aim of image and orna-
ment into a single aesthetic moment of self-loss
or self-forgetting that foreshadowed a central
featureof Schopenhauer'sthought.
The linearisolationof formin ornamentwhich
Moritz prized as a fully independentaesthetic
moment, and which he understoodto possess an
"innerpurposiveness"[innereZweckmassigkeit],
anticipatedKant'sKritikder Urteilskraft(1790)."l
Kant argued here that the only pure judgment
of taste was that which fornally exhibits "free
beauty"- 'free' because the form is independent
not only of any interestwe might have for it, but
also of any definite concept which might deter-
mine what the thing ought to be.'2 Kant men-
tionedpure, unmixedcolors, flowers, sea shells,
exotic birds, linearornaments'a la grecque, and
music without words as instances of such free
beauty, "beauties in themselves." Judgmentof
such objectsproceedssolely on the basis of their
form, for they "meannothingin themselves;they
represent nothing-no object under a definite
concept."'3 Subjects such as the human figure,
on the otherhand,of which we possess a definite
concept, exhibitKantian"dependentbeauty"be-
cause theirperfectiondependsnot on theirrepre-
sentationalone, but on how well they fulfill the
purposeprescribedfor themby the concept.
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The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism
The attentiongiven by Moritzand Kantto the
self-containedsignificance of form in ornament
providedthe inspirationfor subsequentformalist
aesthetics which disregarded imitation as the
basis of art. Johann Friedrich Herbart, a later
philosopherin Kdnigsberg,made Kant'sidea of
a pure judgment of taste the exclusive basis of
aestheticexperience. Herbartarguedthatbeauty
resided not in a particularcolor, formor tone, as
Kanthad suggested, but in its relationas a men-
tal representation (Vorstellung) with another
color, formor tone. 14 A single element is neutral
and only becomes aestheticallysignificantwhen
joined with another element. Herbart did not
deny the significance of subject matter or the
pertinenceof a feeling with which one responds
to a work of art, but insisted that such meaning
and feeling were not the beautiful, and that the
essence of aestheticjudgmentlay in one's expe-
rience of the formalrelations.
Whatdid the old mastersmean to express who devel-
oped the possible forms of the fugue, or those still
older whose industry differentiatedthe possible or-
ders of the column? They desired to express nothing.
Their thoughts did not travel beyond their arts but
penetrateddeeply into theiressence. 15
Herbartdifferentiatedthe inherenteffect of aes-
thetic relations on the viewer from what he
called "apperception."16 By this he meantwhat-
ever the viewer brings to the perception of a
work of art that is not found within its formal
effect. For instances of aesthetic pleasure with-
out apperception,Herbartlooked principallyto
music, architecture, and poetry-all of which
possess a fundamentally non-representational
dimension in their formal structure.What mat-
tered in aestheticjudgment was not the subject,
butthe pleasurecreatedby the mentalconfigura-
tion of elementsor formspresentedto the viewer
by the work of art. Herbartscorned the use of
catalogues in the paintinggallery or librettosat
the opera and praisedHadyn'smusic for the fact
that it requiredno text: "for his music is music
and to be beautiful need mean nothing."'7 And
because the work of art carries its significance
within itself, so to speak, and because its asso-
ciation with anything beyond itself should not
condition the judgment of taste, "imitationcan
neverbe set up as a principleof aesthetic."18
Herbart'sformalismreceived a more system-
Morgan Abstractionand German Theories of the Ornament
atic presentationby Robert Zimmermann,pro-
fessor of philosophy in Vienna, who sought to
outline the "pure science of form" in his major
work on aesthetics of 1865.19 Zimmermann
stressed emphatically that it was only the par-
ticular form of the relation between elements
which pleased or displeased and that everything
outside of this relation such as subject matter
and the materialof the art work were "aesthet-
ically indifferent."20Like Herbart, Zimmer-
mann contended that, as the science of form,
aesthetics had its singularpurpose in determin-
ing the kinds of formal relations which please
and displease.21
II. THE LIMITS OF ORNAMENT
Reactionto the formalistaesthetic was severe in
Germany, not only for the indifference it ex-
pressed toward the subject's significance for
beauty and the marginalizationof what Herbart
called 'apperception,'but also for the threatfor-
malism posed toward underminingthe idealist
enterprise of aesthetics as the explanation of
art's metaphysicalsignificance. This reactionis
importantfor this study because it was the for-
malism of Herbart and Zimmermann which
provokedmid-centuryaestheticiansin Germany
to scrutinize the capacity of line and color for
expression independentof representation.But,
for reasons that I will examine, this scrutiny
workedagainst claims for the aesthetic signifi-
cance of ornament. For, although such promi-
nent critics of the formalist view as Friedrich
Theodor Vischer and Gustav Fechner turned
theirattentionto the non-representationalpower
of line and color, they were not prepared to
consider the expressive potential of formal ele-
ments as the basis for an aesthetic that might
supplant representationin art. If the positive
treatmentof ornamentby Kant and Moritz en-
couraged a formalist aesthetic in Herbart and
Zimmermann,Vischer and Fechner sought to
check this developmentby diminishingthe aes-
thetic statusof ornament.
FriedrichTheodorVischer acknowledgedthe
expressive power of color which was "abstract,
without object," and pointed to the "stained
glass of Gothic churches where clearly without
plastic depictionthe transparentglow of harmo-
nious color works impressively on the soul."22
Yet, Vischer continued, the symbolic signifi-
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233
cance of the light andcolor was furtherextended
where the light and color were boundto objects,
thoughinanimateones such as in landscape.23It
was also Vischer's belief that beauty could not
be exhaustedby regulargeometricalforms such
as the square,circle, cube or sphere. "The beau-
tiful is [an] essentially living, autonomousindi-
vidual; what lives never grows into regularity,
life brings unevennesswith it."24 And color, he
insisted, was only the means, never the end of
painting. Color belonged to the object, was the
wherewithalfor depictingform.25
Accordingto Vischer, by fixing on the harmo-
nious combinationof colors and the connections
of lines independent of depicted objects, for-
malism commits itself to a view which Vischer
regardedas self-evidentlywrong: "Arabesques,
linearand colored ornaments[wouldhave to be]
explained as really and truly beautiful and the
painter of decoration [would be] a purer artist
than the painter of history."26Vischer did not
seek to deny thatline andcolor could producean
effect rightly called beautiful, but allowed them
to do so only within the frameworkof empathy.
He looked to landscapepainting (whose beauty
he called "musical") as the genre in which "ab-
stract phenomena" or formal artistic elements
were infused with a spiritual mood or disposi-
tion.27In orderto accountfor those forms which
representnothing, yet which Vischer felt exhib-
ited beauty, he developed a special theory of
symbol which he defined as that process in
which, "following an inner necessity of the
natureof our soul, we attributea mentaldisposi-
tion to the abstractforms of appearance[color,
tone, line, surface] so that our own inner life
appearsto meet us in them."28 Vischercould not
allow that "abstractforms" could function aes-
thetically without being rooted in the spiritual
life of feeling. By 'abstract'he meant anything
disconnected from concrete objects and there-
fore devoid of life.29 This, he felt, was how the
formalistview wished to characterizebeauty: a
mental configuration of formal elements unre-
lated to the material substrateof the physical
world. Accordingly, Vischer praised two large
decorativepaintingsby the Austrianartist Hans
Makartin which "color is not abstractlyunder-
stood, for it is magnificentlykeyed to the object,
that is, to the expression of the fullness of life,
of complete enjoyment."30Makart's allegori-
cal, neo-rococo style of paintingin these works
234
dramatizedfor Vischer how firmly the deco-
rativeeffects of formandcolor ought to be fixed
withinthe frameworkof representational,albeit
fanciful, image-making.
Gustav Fechner also acknowledged the ex-
pressive effect of the relationsof non-represen-
tationalformandcolor, but assertedthatsuch an
effect in the visual arts, as in music, was not of
the superioraesthetic variety "which deserves
the name beautifuilin the narrow and higher
sense."'Fechner reasonedso because such for-
mal relations lacked "meaning" or "sense."9
"Objectsof little or incidentalaesthetic impor-
tance, such as a carpet [or] a wall can indeed
achieve a direct pleasantnessthrough relations
of color and form in their surfaces, angles, and
patterns;yet proveeven therebythatthey cannot
be elevated to a higher, independentaesthetic
importance,[prove]how negligible and low the
aesthetic achievement of these relations is."32
As pleasingas the symmetryof the kaleidoscope
is, it has no place, Fechner contended, in the
landscapeor historypaintingbecause it does not
suit the meaning (Bedeutung) of the depicted
objects. The color of a painting is determined
more by the demands of meaning than by "the
rules of color harmony."33 Moreover, all rela-
tions amongthe formalelements of an image are
determinedby the characteristicsof the subject
matter,andare beautifulinsofaras they conform
to the "expression of higher and pertinent
ideas."34
But Fechner did not attempt to ignore the
intrinsicexpressivenessof formalrelations. For
instance, he was able to observe that a painting,
alreadyfrom a distance, even before we recognize its
content or whenever we abstract from the same,
makes an impression as enjoyable as the other. In
order to facilitate this abstraction and to judge a
picture no less surely in regardto its mere effect of
colors, manygive the rule to view it upside down.35
Furthermore,Fechner was prepared to allow
that the direct pleasure of formal relations in-
creased in the visual arts as one "descends"
(herabgehen) from sculpture and painting to
architecture,and then to the "technicalarts and
ornament," since the factor of association,
Fechner'scherished mechanismof "meaning,"
was lost to the 'direct' effect of line and color.36
Attentionto subjectmatterin paintingandsculp-
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The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism
ture is replaced in architecture,ornament, and
the decorative arts by such abstractdevices as
symmetry, the golden section, regularizedpat-
terns, the wavy line, the volute, and by the
brilliance, purity,and saturationof color-all of
which lack, according to Fechner, the associa-
tive ability to evoke ideas, which is the principal
determinantof beautyin the 'higher' arts.
III. EMPATHY
At the close of the century, several important
writers abandoned the subordinationof orna-
ment to naturalisticart and clearedthe way for a
very constructiveinterpretationof ornamentand
abstractform. Alois Riegl is the most notewor-
thy instance of an art historianwho revised the
study of ornamentin his first majorwork, Stil-
fragen (1893). But the writer who was to build
on and transformthe discourse on form, style,
empathy, and abstraction most significantly,
through his public lectures and many publica-
tions, was the psychologist and aesthetician,
TheodorLipps. Vischer, as we have seen, origi-
nally introduceda theory of empathyin orderto
accountfor the aestheticsignificance of abstract
forms, and sought thereby to underscore the
distinctionbetweenfigurativeand abstractimag-
ery. Lipps, however,magnifiedthis special case
of empathy into the centerpiece of his aesthetic
and championedthe notionof apperceptionden-
igratedby the formalists.
In a study on the aesthetics of space, Lipps
arguedthat what we apprehendin a spatialform
is a sympatheticfeeling mediatedby the visual
characteristicsof the form such as line and sur-
face.37 "Not the column," Lipps claimed, "but
the spatialformationwhich depicts itself to us in
the column, makes itself erect."38Accordingto
Lipps, the means of representationare loosened
and detachedfrom theirconcreteconnectionsto
reality. There are, he asserted, many levels of
detachment.
We designate these levels as levels of stylization. To
stylize means to make formsof realitydetachedfrom
their concrete contexts in reality aesthetically intel-
ligible. Wedo this when we successively disregardthe
characteristicswhich are peculiar to [the forms in
theirconcrete reality] ... especially the manykindsof
accidents which necessarily underlie [the forms]....
Whatremainsis a moreor less generalversionof their
Morgan Abstractionand German Theories of the Ornament
existence, a more or less general law of shaping or
fonnation, or a law of their becoming. To stylize, we
might therefore also say, means to release from the
concrete forms of reality their more or less generally
conceived law of shaping or formationand to visu-
alize [the law] for itself....
All types of geometrical forms can be obtained
throughthis successive stylization. Inversely, we are
free to say that each geometrical form-the simple
straight line not excluded-if not according to its
historical origin, then according to its aesthetic es-
sence,is stylizednature.39
In seeking to understandthe dynamics of per-
ception and the nature of aesthetic experience,
Lippsignoredthe traditionaldistinctionbetween
subjectmatterand abstractformby eliding them
on a single continuum of degrees of "stylized
nature."This implied thatgeometricalform and
naturalisticform obeyed the same law, a law
which was bared and made visually intelligible
in the abstractformof lines and figures.
This implication was further supported by
Lipps when, in his major work on aesthetics
(1903), he investigated the experience of "ab-
stract forms" such as straight and wavy lines
which appear "filled with life."40 They appear
so, Lipps reasoned, because we feel life into
them. This theory of empathy, for which Lipps
is most well known, assumedthat the ego expe-
riences itself in the object by imaginativelypro-
jecting itself there. Perception (Wahrnehmung)
itself shows us only mere existence. On the other
hand, empathy is the imaginativeanimationof
sense perceptions,41the conferralof unity, free-
dom, and life throughwhat Lipps called 'apper-
ception.'42In a reversalof Herbart'spsychology
of aesthetics, Lipps made empathy the very
basis for beauty,and applied it as a fundamental
psychic operationto the perceptionof individual
lines, shapes, and colors as well as to recogniz-
able representationsof objects. The wavy line is
beautiful, we read, "becauseits progression, its
quickerand slower self-bending, the tension and
release lying therein, is felt by me as a free
activity and an exuberant feeling of my own
contemplatingego sunkeninto the wavy line."43
By virtue of empatheticprojection, every geo-
metrical form possesses a determinatecharac-
ter.44Color is also "lively in itself" and "dipped
in mood," and only thereby does it constitute a
"properaesthetic object."45 This gives color an
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235
innerlife or power. This power or striving Lipps
attributedto the viewer: "[it] is my striving, but
I experience it immediatelynot as originatingin
me, but in the color and its peculiar quality."46
Eachcolorpossessesits own "character of mood"
(Stimmungscharakter),but Lipps refused to
enumeratethem since each is determinedby the
individualviewer. Each person 'feels' the Stim-
munginto a color.47
By understandingstyle as a "distancingfrom
the simple reproductionof thatwhich is found in
nature," and by regardingempathy as the indi-
vidual viewer'smeans of determiningthe beauty
of even non-representationalelements such as
line and color, Lipps facilitatedthe appreciation
of ornamentas a self-sufficient aestheticform.48
Yet he was not the first to do so. In 1886 Hein-
richWdlfflin had applieda theory of empathyto
architecturein his doctoral dissertation.49En-
couragedby his teacherat Basel, JohannesVol-
kelt, Wdlfflin had sought to account for the
expression of a spiritual content or mood in
purely architectonicforms. Wdlfflin arguedthat
corporeal forms are significant to us because
"we recognize in them the expression of a feel-
ing soul. Instinctivelywe animateeach thing."50
This animation is an impulse so primordialin
humanity,Wdlfflin believed, that were it to per-
ish, it would mean the very death of art. He
explainedthis animationof the world outside of
us as a subordinationof all appearancesto the
image of our own bodies. "Our bodily organi-
zation is the form under which we apprehend
everything corporeal."951 And he proceeded to
attempt to show that the elements of architec-
ture, indeed, the very laws of aesthetics, were
nothingotherthanthe conditionsunderwhich an
organic, corporealpleasuremay exist.
IV. JUGENDSTIL
We have tracedan ongoing theoreticaldiscourse
that did not reflect the aims of artistic practice
until aroundthe turn of the century. Then, sev-
eral writers, artists, and architects associated
with Jugendstilarchitectureand design applied
discussions of form, style, empathy, and ab-
stractionto the ornament.In 1901,the critic Karl
Scheffler wrote enthusiasticallythat the human
instinct for symmetry exhibited in ornamentis
the feeling of harmony pulsating through the
architectureof the humanbody.52
236
If we ask a good artisthow he designs ornamentsor if
we watch him: he experiences them! Immersed in
himself, he sits before the page and deliberates over
each line with compensatingmovementsas one listen-
ing to his instinct. He suggests to his fantasy the
feeling of supporting or carrying-and instantly he
drawsthe line which releaseshis feeling; he exercises
with his anns as if dancing on a wire-and immedi-
ately he has found the symmetricalcomplementof a
curve. This is the way that good and original orna-
mentscome into being.53
Ornamentaldesign is a directexpressionof feel-
ing and originates in the dynamics of human
anatomy. Scheffler believed that because the
human body and everything organic share the
same structurallaws of formation, "our orga-
nism is a sort of instrumentwhose stringsare set
in sympatheticvibration." This meant, he fur-
therconjectured,thatornaments-the direct ex-
pressions of this sympathy-are to be found
everywhere: "A drop of ink squirted in a glass
of water, cigar smoke in motionless air, the
wave, the plant, a waving flag, the photograph
of glacial drift, bone formations, and muscle
fibers-in short, ornamentsare everywhere!"54
In an essay entitled "Line," published in the
following year,the architectand designerHenry
van de Velde, echoed Scheffler's idea of direct
expression by proclaimingthat "only few crea-
tions standin so direct, so close a relationshipto
their creator as line. "55 Van de Velde charac-
terized lines as "transcribedgestures-public
psychic expressions."56 Both Scheffler and Van
de Velde evince a significant debt to contempo-
rary theories of empathyand to the traditionof
physiognomyin formulatinga model of expres-
sion in which an inner force or content is visu-
alized in externalform.
The young Munich architect, August Endell,
brought both of these elements together in an
importantessay of 1897, which influenced both
Schefflerand Vande Velde.57It is in Endell that
we find intense theoreticalconcerns applied to
architecturalpractice in a way that anticipated
both the art and theory of Wassily Kandinsky.58
Endelldiscerneda rift betweenpast andpresent:
whereas architectureand crafts of the past ex-
hibited their own historical stylistic features,
work of the present constitutes an entirely new
period of style, indeed the beginning of an art
whose forms "mean nothing, depict nothing,
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The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism
andrecallnothing,[and]excite oursoul as deeply
as ever music was able [to do] with tones."59
Endell insistedthat "one mustlearnto see andto
steep oneself in forms."60In orderto appreciate
"formalbeauty,"he claimed it was necessary to
learn to see in an "isolated" fashion. Endell
describeda way of seeing which informedSchef-
fler's passage quotedabove:
Wemustdirectourview to details,to the fonn of a
treeroot,to thearrangementof a leafona stem,to the
structureof treebark,to the lines whichthickfoam
fonnson theseashore.Normaywe glanceoverfonns
withoutattention,but must follow them with our
eyes-every bend, every crook, every extension,
everyjuncture,in short,we mustsharein theexperi-
ence of everychangein fonn. Forwe see precisely
only one pointin ourvisualfield andonly whatwe
haveseen clearlycan becomeeffectivefor ourfeel-
ing.Butif we see inthisway,therewillemergebefore
us a new, previouslyunknownworldof immense
riches. A thousandmoods are wakenedin us ...
Natureappearsto live andwe graspnow thatthere
reallyaresadtrees,evilandmaliciousboughs,chaste
grasses,andfearsome,horribleflowers.6'
But Endell proceededto point out that these are
only appearances, and that we do not actually
"animate" (beseelen) a natural phenomenon.
Feelings are only aroused in us by objects. Nor
is it a matterof association since we may recall
any numberof meaningsor feelings in the pres-
ence of an object. Instead,Endell suggestedthat
there is a parallelism between essence and ap-
pearance, inner and outer-that we attributethe
feeling aroused in us to the "innerbeing of the
object." He noted that we also listen to music
and are moved without knowing why. In the
second installment of the article, Endell ob-
served how lines of various size and thickness
producedifferentsensationsin the observerand,
on the premise that all feeling is a function of
tempoandtensionrangingfromsmallerto greater
intensity, suggested that the effects of line and
visual directioncould be tabulated.62
Endell'sarticleis fascinatingon severalcounts.
First of all, in stressingthe singularfocus of the
"visual field," Endell recalls and then redefines
an earlier attemptto characterizeabstractionin
termsof a determinatefocus. In 1845, Johannes
AndreasRomberg,a prominentHamburgarchi-
tect and prolific writer on the arts, included in
Morgan Abstractionand German Theories of the Ornament
the first edition of his Conversationslexiconfar
bildende Kunst an unprecedentedentry entitled
"Abstraction."Rombergdefined the termas
thementalactivityby meansof whichone acceptsin
the formationof art worksonly that which corre-
spondsto the detenninateartisticaim andleavesthe
restunconsidered. Abstraction inthisaimis therefore
necessaryforeveryartistif he does notwantto miss
his aim throughthe superfluous,excessiveor idle.
Theartistwhodesiresto achievehis endwouldlearn
to separateall parts,all featureswhichdo notbelong
essentiallyto theaim, whichhindertheeffect,which
detain in an unusefulmanner,which give neither
emphasisnor new light, which do not accent the
subject from the side that should interestus. ... for if
wedo notwishto see everysideof thesubjectatonce,
we will be contentto take notice of that which is
accented,whichshouldcaptivateourattention.63
Romberg's use of the term "attention" (Auf-
merksamkeit)introducedcontemporaryphysio-
logical discourse into a discussion which had
formerly depended more on metaphysics and
epistemology. In contrastto the traditionalphil-
osophicaldistinctionbetween"essence"and "ac-
cident," "attention"was a psychological opera-
tion studied in nineteenth-centuryphysiology.
In the most importantcontemporarystudy, the
professor of anatomy and physiology Johannes
Mullerdescribedattentionas the effort of taking
cognizanceof "only one object at a time. "64The
mind, Muller stated, is unable to direct "an
equally accurateattentionto every part" of the
object it surveys. "If we endeavouredto direct
our attentionto the whole field of vision at the
same time, we should see nothing distinctly."65
In his discussion of the "visual field," Endell
narrowed the focus of Romberg's concept of
attentionin orderthe more completely to isolate
or abstract detailed structures in nature.66He
encouraged the viewer to learn to restrict his
visual field to specific motifs which could evoke
feelings withoutreferenceto or association with
other objects or dimensions of experience. The
pursuitof abstractingcontours from nature led
Endell to make these forms the sole basis of
architectureand design, as his facade for the
HofatelierElvira in Munichdemonstrates.
Endell's discussion is also noteworthyfor the
way in which he replacedcontemporarynotions
of empathydescribed as 'animation'or 'anthro-
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237
pomorphism'with a theory of expression prem-
ised on physiognomy. The power of form over
the soul, he wrote, was "a direct, immediate
influence without any intermediatemember,by
no means the result of an anthropomorphismor
humanization[Vermenschlichung]."67 The con-
cepts of animationand anthropomorphismwere
employed by such proponents of empathy as
Volkelt, Wdfflin, and Lipps, and it has been said
thatEndell heardLipps lecture at the University
in Munich.68Endell'sclarificationof how things
"appear"to exhibit the feelings we experience
suggests a firsthandknowledge of very contem-
porary debates over the nature of empathy. In
1898 Paul Stern published a study on the psy-
chological analysis of aesthetic perception en-
titled EinfiihlungundAssociation in der neueren
Aesthetik.69 In it he criticizedthe use of the term
"empathy"as metaphoricaland therefore mis-
leading, and argued for association as the psy-
chological basis for aesthetic experience.70By
explicitly stating that 'animation' is limited to
appearances (a fact which seems sufficiently
obvious), Endell may have been attemptingto
avoid the metaphysicalexcesses for which Stern
criticized such proponentsof empathy as Vis-
cher and Volkelt, who had linked empathy to
pantheism.71
The first years of the twentieth century saw
the critique of empathy intensified and the rec-
ognition of ornamentfirst rise and then decline.
A few years after Endell's essay appeared, Ar-
thur Roessler invoked physiognomy as an anal-
ogy to the expressive power of line, perhaps
as an alternative to the anthropomorphismof
empathy:
As mentalprocessesexpressthemselvesin certain
bodilygestures,artisticsensationscanalso be made
visibleas innermovement by meansof line.Climbing
andfalling,stiff andpliant,continuousandbroken,
wide-reaching as wellas narrowly-restricted
linesare
able in the same manneras brightor dim colors ... to
awakenin us the basic mood of their creator....
Formsarenotonlyimportant as aestheticmeans,they
are in factsignificantas the symboliccoverings,the
sensuouslyperceptibleexpressionsof movementsof
the mind or soul.72
Roessler could thus appreciateAdolf Hoelzel's
completely abstractornamentaldrawings- "ab-
stractin the sense of non-objective,"as he said-
238
as works in which "the spiritual and mental
movements of the artist ... were arrested." With
this non-representationalview of abstractionin
mind, Roessler believed that the "new modern
movementin art" was not a questionof stylized
forms, but, "as Scheffler says, pure form, line,
ornament."7 In fact, Roessler insisted that the
only genuine ornamentwas the "abstract"one.
By abstracthe meantthe ornamentwhich "organ-
ically creates its form from matterin essential
lawfulness."74The naturalphenomenon "styl-
ized into an ornament" will never be capable,
Roesslercontended,of creating "the impression
of an organicallyproducedthing, of a necessity
which reposes in itself."75Instead, the stylized
ornament will always remind us of the thing
from which it has borrowed its form. Such an
ornamentwill neverescape the status of "deco-
ration." With this assertion Roessler ruptured
any idea of a continuum between naturalistic
depiction and abstract style, thereby placing
abstractionoutside the orbit of representation.
Roessler held that the necessary antecedentfor
non-representationalart was a theory of artistic
expression which allowed form to emerge "or-
ganically," that is, as a direct expression of
feeling, as an external correspondence to an
inner sensation. Any reference to the world of
objects-whether through imitation, stylization
or association-would mediate this expression
by placing it within the realmof representation.
Whatmatteredin the new art was the immediacy
of the gesture, the directlinkagebetweenfeeling
and form which 'abstract' ornament was priv-
ileged to provide.
While empathyhad assisted in the emergence
of a theory of abstract form in the work of
Vischer and Lipps, the tendency to distinguish
empathyandabstractionpersisted.Indeed,shortly
afterthe turnof the century,empathywas starkly
opposed to abstractionin what has become ar-
guably the most discussed doctoraldissertation
in German art history. In his Abstraktionund
Einfiihlung(1908), Wilhelm Worringerexam-
ined the linear ornament and architecture of
ancient, middle eastern, and medieval cultures
andclaimedto find in theman artisticsensibility
which employed abstract linear forms for the
purposeof transcendingnature.Empathycorre-
spondedto the aestheticimpulsethatfound itself
at home in the world and its organic forms.
Abstractionandempathywere diametricallyop-
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The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism
posed, opposite poles of a psychology of style
which even found expression in a bipolar divi-
sion of Europeinto northand south. Abstraction
was the characteristicKunstwollenof northern
Europe. Empathy,on the other hand, appliedto
the naturalisticart of classicism and the Italian
Renaissance. Yet scholarly discussions of Wor-
ringer'sthesis rarelypoint out thathis use of the
term 'abstract' by no means intended exclu-
sively 'non-representational'form. Abstraction
meant for Worringerany linear treatment of
form, representationalor otherwise, whose geo-
metrical, inorganiccharacterrepudiatesany as-
sociationwith our vital sensationsas organically
designed beings. Abstractform constitutedany
alienationfromthe body anda correlativeyearn-
ing for the transcendent.Although he is often
regardedas some sort of ideologue for German
Expressionistexperiments in abstractpainting,
Worringer'snotion of abstractionis not consis-
tent with what Wassily Kandinsky envisioned
for painting.76
Kandinsky, who had been in Munich since
1896 as an art studentand artist, and was there-
fore no doubt familiarwith much of the critical
discourse on abstraction, eventually went be-
yond Worringer'sdefinitionof abstraction.Kan-
dinsky showed no interestcirca 1912 in restrict-
ing the artist's pictorial vocabularyto the rigid
geometrical patterns of ancient ornament, in
which Worringerdiscerned an abstract'urge to
form.' By the time he published Ueber das
Geistige in der Kunst (1912), Kandinsky had
come to understandabstractionnot in terms of
ornamentalgirds or flat, hard-edged'geometric
regularity'(to use Worringer'sexpression), but
as a form of imagemaking aimed at complete
non-objectivity.He followed Roessler in insist-
ing on a careful distinctionbetweenornamentin
the past and the place for a new visual form
which owed nothing to visual appearances.77
Yet, even as late as 1912, Kandinskywas cau-
tious in announcing the break with represen-
tation:
If we beginat onceto breakthebondswhichbindus
to nature,anddevoteourselvespurelyto combination
of purecolourand abstractform,we shallproduce
workswhicharemeredecoration,whicharesuitedto
necktiesorcarpets.Beautyof FormandColouris no
sufficientaimby itself,despitetheassertionsof pure
whoareobsessedwith
aesthetesorevenof naturalists,
Morgan Abstractionand German Theories of the Ornament
the idea of "beauty."It is because of the elementary
stage reachedby our paintingthatwe are so little able
to grasp the inner harmony of true colour and form
composition.78
Unlike Vischer and Fechner,Kandinskydid not
considerpure color and form inherentlyincapa-
ble of serving as the basis for a non-representa-
tional art, but did believe that neitherartists nor
the public were prepared for this revelation,
although,as the apocalypticrhetoricof his trea-
tise constantlypromises, the day was not far off.
Were pure composition to be attempted, the
result would have been a decorativeart unequal
to the revolutionarystatureKandinskyexpected
of painting. Kandinskyacknowledgedthat pure
decorationhad a "life of its own." Yet he main-
tainedthatornamentin the past was ungoverned
by innerspiritand representedwhatamountedto
a capriciousplay of form unable to express any
innermotive.
Along side of ornament,Kandinskyalso com-
pared the literary genre of fable to non-natu-
ralistic art, but fable also failed to serve as the
basis for an art of pure harmony.79Both orna-
ment and fable were inadequatein the end as
models for abstractionbecause both were gov-
erned by external motives (i.e., the purpose of
decorationand the narrationof a story), which
do not allow the harmonyto be determinedfrom
within. Thus, Kandinsky concluded that the
"new art" would have to avoid "two dangers":
On the one hand is the totally arbitraryapplicationof
colour to geometrical form-pure patterning.On the
other hand is the more naturalisticuse of colour in
bodily form-pure phantasy.80
Rather than subscribe to the elevation of the
ornamentin the work of Riegl and Worringer,
Kandinskyreturnedto Vischer's and Fechner's
notion of ornamentin order to distance the ab-
stractfrom the ornamental.The abstractserved
no other end for Kandinskythan visualizing the
inner necessity of the artist. Yet this notion of
autonomywas indebtedto Jugendstilart theory
and practiceand ultimatelyrecalls Moritz'sthe-
ory of the ornament.8'In the end, Roessler and
Kandinskywere in search of the same thing: a
way of painting whose articulationof form and
use of color grew out of what both men not
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239
altogether clearly characterizedas the inner or
spiritualworkingsof the creativemind.
V. CONCLUSION
From the late eighteenth to the early twentieth
centuriestheoriesof ornamentserveda vital role
in debate over the scope and natureof represen-
tation. Ornamentinspired both the creation of
formalistaestheticsand vigorous attacksagainst
formalism, which in turn introducedthe idea of
empathy to explain the aesthetic effect of ab-
stract forms. And ornamentalso served subse-
quent attempts to distinguish abstraction and
empathy. Finally, with Kandinsky, traditional
ornamentwas rejected as an artistic alternative
in the search for a self-containedprinciple. In-
fluenced perhapsby Riegl's idea of the Kunst-
wollen, Kandinskycalled this principlethe "in-
ner necessity," and understood it to direct the
creation of the work of art without concern for
form or external appearancesand solely with
regard to inner meaning and idea.82 Whatever
else that may have meant, Kandinskylooked for
an art which did not decorate or adorn a pre-
existing form, but one which occupied center
stage or even orchestrated an entire Gesamt-
kunstwerk. This transfiguredornament would
no longer be marginalizedto the statusof 'mere
decoration,' but could provide the locus for
nothing less than an ontological disclosure, a
revelationof the spiritualor metaphysicalreality
that Kandinskybelieved loomed behind appear-
ances and awaited epiphany in the imminent
'epoch of the great spiritual.'
DAVID MORGAN
ArtDepartment
University
Valparaiso
IN46383
Valparaiso,
1. Arthur Roessler, Neu-Dachau: Ludwig Dill, Adolf
Hoelzel, ArthurLanghammer(Bielefeld and Leipzig: Vel-
hagen and Klasing, 1905), pp. 123-124; Hoelzel's images
are reproducedin Roessler's text and more recently repro-
duced and discussed in Peg Weiss's importantstudy, Kan-
dinskyin Munich. TheFormativeJugenstil Years(Princeton
University Press, 1979), to which I am indebted for an
insightful discussion and excellent bibliographyof critical
writings ca. 1900 in Munich.
2. Roessler, Neu-Dachau, p. 125: "das abstrakteOrna-
ment bilden; abstraktin der Bedeutungvon ungegenstind-
lich."
240
3. For a broad historical treatmentof ornamentin nine-
teenth-centuryGermanart theory, see Frank-LotharKroll,
Das Ornamentin der Kunsttheoriedes 19. Jahrhunderts
(Hildesheim:Olms, 1987); a helpful and importantstudy is
E.H. Gombrich'sThe Sense of Order:A Study in the Psy-
chology of DecorativeArt (Cornell UniversityPress, 1979).
4. Karl Philipp Moritz, Vorbegriffezu einer Theorieder
Ornamente(Berlin:KarlMassdorff, 1793), p. 42.
5. Ibid., p. 39.
6. Karl Philipp Moritz, Schriften zur Aesthetik und
Poetik, ed. Hans Joachim Schrimpf (Tibingen: Max Nie-
meyer, 1962), p. 116.
7. Ibid., p. 210.
8. Moritz, Vorbegriffe,p. 6.
9. Ibid., p. 5.
10. Moritz, Schriften,pp. 3, 5.
11. Ibid., p. 6; the article, entitled "Versucheiner Ver-
einigung aller schbnen Kinste und Wissenschaften unter
dem Begriff des in sich selbst Vollendeten,"was originally
publishedin 1785 in the BerlinischenMonatsschriften.
12. The role of ornamentin Kant'sthirdcritiquehas been
recently discussed by Serge Trottein, "Ornement et es-
thetique chez Kant," in WorldArt, Acts of the XXVIth
InternationalCongress of the History of Art, ed. Irving
Lavin (PennsylvaniaState UniversityPress, 1986), pp. 255-
259.
13. ImmanuelKant, Critiqueof Judgment, tr. J.H. Ber-
nard(New York:Hafner, 1951), p. 66.
14. Michael Podro has discussed the ambiguity which
Herbart failed to resolve between the Vorstellungas the
mentalrepresentationof an object or the aspect of an object,
The Manifold in Perception (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1972), p. 66.
15. Quoted in Philosophies of Beauty, ed. E.F. Carritt
(Oxford University Press, 1931), p. 156, translationem-
mended; Herbart, Kurze Encyklopaedie der Philosophie
(Halle: C.A. Schwetschke und Sohn, 1831), pp. 124-125.
Emphasisin original.
16. Herbart, Encyklopaedie der Philosophie, pp. 121-
123.
17. Philosophiesof Beauty,p. 156, translationemmended;
Encyklopaedieder Philosophie, p. 124.
18. Ibid., p. 155. Emphasisin original.
19. RobertZimmermann,AllgemeineAesthetikals Form-
wissenschaft(Vienna: Wilhelm Braumriller,1865).
20. Ibid., I, p. 21.
21. Ibid., I, p. 31; cf. Herbart,Encyklopaedieder Philo-
sophie, pp. 127-128.
22. Vischerhadasked "canlines andcolors, which depict
nothing, neverthelessproducean impression, which is more
than sensuously pleasant?"(Kritische Gdnge N.F. 5 [Stutt-
gart: Verlag der J.G. Cotta, 1866], p. 62), and answered
affirmatively with the proviso that such lines or colors,
"indeed abstract,without object," be experienced "as part
of a concrete whole, as in the painted windows of Gothic
churches, where certainly also without pictorial depiction
the transparentglow of harmoniouscolors works compel-
lingly on the soul" (p. 76).
23. Ibid., pp. 76-77.
24. Ibid., pp. 67-68.
25. Ibid., p. 61.
26. Ibid., p. 62.
27. Ibid., pp. 76-77, 141-142, 104-105.
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The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism
28. Vischer,KritischeGange 6 (Stuttgart:VerlagderJ.G.
Cotta, 1873), p. 4: the "Begriff der Symbolik" is: "das
dunkle, aber innige, unwillkirliche und doch nicht religids
gebundene,sondernaesthetischefreie Leihen, wodurchwir,
einer innern Nothwendigkeitder Natur unserer Seele fol-
gend, abstractenErscheinungsformen eine Seelen-stimmung
unterlegen, so dass unser eigenes inneres Leben uns aus
ihnen entgegenzukommenscheint." For a discussion of the
'abstract'elements, see p. 36 of the same text.
29. For a related view that perceptionof lines, surfaces,
forms, etc. are incapable on their own right of evoking a
fully aestheticexperience, see JohannesVolkelt, "ZurPsy-
chologie der aesthetischenBeseelung," Zeitschriftfur Philo-
sophie und philosophische KritikNF 113 (1899), pp. 172-
173, where Volkeltfollowed Vischer by invokingthe neces-
sity of a corporealempathyin aestheticexperience.
30. Vischer, Kritische Gdnge 6: p. 100. Makartpainted
the two large, densely-composed, and highly coloristic alle-
gories (entitled Abundantia:Die Gaben der Erde and Die
Gaben des Meeres) depicting the gifts of the earth and sea
for the dining-hall of a Hungarianmagnate in 1870-see
reproductionsanddiscussion in GerbertFrodl, Hans Makart
(Salzburg:Residenz, 1974), pp. 312-313. Both images are
now located in the Louvre. Although the pictures were
intendedfor a residence in Vienna, they were not installed,
buttraveledto Berlinfor exhibition, whereVischer mayhave
seen them.
31. GustavFechner, Vorschuleder Aesthetik,volume one
(Leipzig: Breitkopfand Hartel, 1876), pp. 177-178.
32. Ibid., p. 178.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid., pp. 178-179.
35. Ibid., p. 182. It is worth noting that Kandinsky re-
called that an importantbreakthroughin his work was wit-
nessing a painting transfigured into non-representational
formsby sunlight, "Ruckblicke,"in Kandinsky.Die Gesam-
melten Schriften, volume one, ed. Hans K. Roethel and
JelenaHahl-Koch(Bern:Benteli, 1980), p. 38.
36. Fechner, Vorschule der Aesthetik, volume one,
p. 183. For Fechner'sdiscussion of the mechanismof asso-
ciation which appearsto be precisely what Herbarthad in-
tended by 'apperception,' see Fechner, "Das Association-
sprincip in der Aesthetik," Zeitschriftfar bildende Kunst 1
(1866): pp. 179-191.
37. Theodor Lipps, Raumaesthetik und geometrisch-
optische Tauschungen.Schriften der Gesellschaft fur psy-
chologische Forschung,IX-X (Leipzig: JohannAmbrosius
Barth, 1897).
38. Ibid., pp. 14-15.
39. Ibid., pp. 25-26. Emphasisin original.
40. Theodor Lipps, Aesthetik. Pyschologie des Schonen
und der Kunst, part one, Grundlegungder Aesthetik(Ham-
burg and Leipzig: Leopold Voss, 1903), p. 225. All quota-
tions are from the first volume.
41. Ibid., p. 163.
42. Ibid., p. 11: "Apperzeption."
43. Ibid., p. 248.
44. Ibid., p. 251.
45. Ibid., p. 441
46. Ibid., p. 442.
47. Ibid., p. 445.
48. Ibid., p. 261.
49. Heinrich Wolfflin, "Prolegomenazu einer Psychol-
Morgan Abstractionand German Theories of the Ornament
ogie der Architektur"(1886; reprintedin Kleine Schriften,
ed. JosephGantner[Basel: Benno-Schwabe, 1946]), pp. 13-
47.
50. Ibid., p. 15.
51. Ibid., p. 21.
52. Karl Scheffler, "Meditationenuber das Ornament,"
DekorativeKunst8 (1901): pp. 347-414. Scheffler's article
was published in Dekorative Kunst, a Munich- and Paris-
basedjournalfoundedin 1897to promotethe decorativearts
in Germanyand France. The article has been examined by
Weiss, Kandinskyin Munich, p. 111.
53. Scheffler,"Meditationenuberdas Ornament,"p. 400.
54. Ibid.
55. Henry van de Velde, "Die Linie" (1902; reprintedin
Essays, Leipzig: Insel, 1910), p. 43.
56. Ibid., p. 42.
57. August Endell, "Formenschonheitund Dekorative
Kunst." part 1, "Die Freude an der Forn," Dekorative
Kunst 1 (1897): pp. 75-77; part 2, "Die gerade Linie,"
Dekorative Kunst 1 (1898): pp. 119-120; part 3, "Gerad-
linige Gebilde." DekorativeKunst 1 (1898): pp. 121-125.
58. Peg Weiss, Kandinskin Munich, pp. 34-40.
59. Endell, "Die Freudean der Forn," p. 75.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid., pp. 75-76. Emphasisin original.
62. Endell, "Die gerade Linie," pp. 119-120.
63. J.A. Romberg, founder, continued by Friedrich
Faber,Conversationslexiconfur bildendeKunst,volume one
(Leipzig: Renger, 1845-1857), p. 43. Because this text has
not been commented on heretoforethat I am aware, I offer
the originalin full:
Abstraction,eigentl. Absonderung,als philosophischerterminustech-
nicus, die Geistesthatigkeit,verrnogewelcher man bei der Bildung
von Begriffen das Unwesentliche und Minderwesentlichevon dem
Wesentlichenabsondert;in der schonen Kunst, die Geistesthatigkeit,
verrnogewelcher man bei Bildung von Kunstwerkennur das dem
bestimmten Kunstzwecke Entsprechendeannimmt und das andere
unberiicksichtigtlIsst. Abstractionin diesem Zwecke ist daherjedem
Kunstlernothig, wenn er nicht Theile, all Zilge, die nicht wesentlich
zum Zweck gehoren, welche die Wirkunghindern, unnutzerWeise
aufhalten,nicht Nachdruckoder neues Licht geben, den Gegenstand
nicht von der Seite herausheben,die uns jetzt interessirensoll, lerne
der Kuinstler,der seinen Zweck erreichen will, absondern. Nur hute
er sich von der dann den Fehler der Dunkelheit, Trockenheit,Kalte
und einformrigenMattigkeit vermeiden. Nicht dass abgesondert,
sondern was abgesondertwerde, ist es, worauf alles hier ankommt;
denn wollen wir gleich nichtjede Seite des Gegenstandes zugleich
sehen, so werden wir doch mit Vergnugeneben jene herausgehoben
bemerken,die eben jetzt unsereAufmerksamkeitfesseln sollte. [em-
phasis in originall
64. Johannes Muller, Handbuch der Physiologie des
MenschenfPr Vorlesungen,volume two (Coblenz: J. Hol-
scher, 1834-40), part 1, p. 96; Elements of Physiology,
volume two, tr. William Baly (London: printed for Taylor
and Walton, 1842), p. 938.
65. Muller,Elementsof Physiology, volume two, p. 1085.
66. Whetheror not Endell knew Romberg'sdefinition is
immaterial.As a studentof Lipps at the universityin Munich
(see note 68), Endell was certainly initiated into the scien-
tific and academic discourse of perceptual psychology as
suggestedby his use of technicaltenninology such as Sehfeld
and Vermenschlichung.
67. Endell, "Die Freudean der Form,"p. 76: "Das ist die
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241
Macht der Form uber unser Gemut, ein direkter unmit-
telbarerEinfluss ohne alle Zwischenglieder,durchausnicht
etwa die Folge eines Anthropomorphismus,einer Vermen-
schlichung."
68. For the notion of Vermenschlichungor Anthropo-
morphismus,see HeinrichWoifflin, "Prolegomena,"p. 16;
Theodor Lipps, Aesthetik, volume one, pp. 163-167; on
beseelen and Beseelung, see JohannesVolkelt, Der Symbol-
Begriff in der neuesten Aesthetik (Jena: Hermann Dufft,
1876), pp. 116-118; and "ZurPsychologie der aesthetischen
Beseelung," Zeitschriftfir Philosophie undphilosophische
Kritik NF 113 (1899), pp. 161-179; Wblfflin, "Prolego-
mena," pp. 15-16; Lipps, "AesthetischeEinfifhlung,"Zeit-
schriftftirPsychologie undPhysiologie der Sinnesorgane22
(1900), p. 416. According to Fritz Schmalenbach,Jugend-
stil, Ein Beitrag zu Theorie und Geschichte der Flchen-
kunst(Wurzberg:KonradTriltsch, 1935), pp. 31, 92, Endell
studied with Lipps in Munich, cited in Weiss, Kandinskyin
Munich, p. 169, note 57.
69. Paul Stern, Einffihlungund Association in der neu-
eren Aesthetik. Beitrage zur Aesthetik, V (Hamburg and
Leipzig: Leopold Voss, 1898).
70. Ibid., pp. 23, 79-80. In 1901 ConradLange repeated
this charge in his long work, Das Wesender Kunst, volume
one (Berlin:G. Grote, 1901), p. 4.
71. Stern, Einfihlung undAssociation, pp. 38-39; Wblf-
flin had also expressed some reservations regarding Vol-
kelt's pantheismandthe operationof Selbstversetzungwhich
Volkeltdiscussed, "Prolegomena,"pp. 17-2 1.
72. Roessler, Neu-Dachau, pp. 119, 121.
73. Ibid., p. 115.
74. Ibid., p. 123.
75. Ibid.
76. In contrastto the common assumptionthatKandinsky
owed a great debt to Worringer'sAbstraktion und Ein-
fahlung, it is in fact likely that he had not read the book
before Ueber das Geistige was first published in 1912, see
Norbert Lynton, "Expressionism,"in Conceptsof Modern
Art, ed. Nikos Stangos(London:Thamesand Hudson, 1981),
pp. 42-43. I have discussed Worringer'srelationto German
Expressionism in greaterdetail elsewhere, see David Mor-
gan, "Concepts of Abstraction in German Art Theory,
1750-1914" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago,
1990), pp. 146-152; for an extensive review of German
historiographyon Worringer,see Evelin Priebe, Angst und
Abstraktion. Die Funktionder Kunst in der Kunsttheorie
Kandinskys(Frankfurtam Main:PeterLang, 1986), pp 135-
152. For a contemporaryand unrestrainedrepudiationof
ornament,see the lectureby Viennese architectAdolf Loos,
"Ornamentund Verbrechen,"first presented in Munich in
1908, reprintedin a collection of essays by Loos entitled
Trotzdem, 1900-1930 (Innsbruck: Brenner, 1931). As
Reyner Banham pointed out, Loos even singled out for
censure such practitionersof Jugendstil design as Van de
Velde, Olbrich, and Eckmann, in Banham, Theory and
Design in the First Machine Age, 2 ed. (Massachusetts
Instituteof TechnologyPress, 1980), p. 94.
77. FranzMarc, Kandinsky'scollaboratorand friend, ex-
plicitly contrasted his artistic aim with 'stylization,' see
Marc, Schriften, ed. Klaus Lankheit (Cologne: DuMont,
1978). On Marc'sfundamentalshift from understandingthe
new paintingcirca 1910as a refinementof "decorativecolor
values" thatpromised much for the appliedarts to a "purely
242 The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism

pictorial"aim with no concern for "decorativeeffect," see
Claus Pese, Franz Marc. Leben und Werke (Stuttgart:
Belser, 1989), pp. 30-31, 117.
78. Wassily Kandinsky,Concerningthe Spiritual in Art,
tr. M.T.H. Sadler(New York:Dover, 1977), p. 47.
79. Ibid., pp. 49-50.
80. Ibid., p. 51.
81. In a similar manner, Kant's distinction between free
and dependentbeauty is recalled in Riegl's contention that
the basic laws of a period's Kunstwollenare more clearly
expressed in architectureand the crafts than in figurative
works of sculpture and painting because the presence of
content in the latter distracts the modern viewer with his
preoccupationwith message, Riegl, SpatromischeKunstin-
dustrie, 2 ed (1927; reprint, Darmstadt:Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1973), p. 19; reiterated by Worringer,
Abstractionand Empathy.A Contributionto the Psychology
of Style, tr. Michael Bullock (New York:InternationalUni-
versities Press, 1953), p. 51.
82. Riegl used the term "innereNotwendigkeit"in 1901
when defining his term Kunstwollenin SpatromischeKun-
stindustrie,p. 22.

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