Metamorphoses of the Subject: Kandinsky Interpreted by Michel Henry and Henri Maldiney
Avant: Journal of Philosophical-Interdisciplinary Vanguard September 30, 2018 A. Yampolskaya 1 citation
Michel Henry and Henri Maldiney offer contrasting interpretations of Wassily Kandinsky's art. Henry sees Kandinsky's work as a paradigmatic example of a more original mode of manifestation, free from self-alienation, and akin to an ascetic or mystical experience that transcends subject-object distinctions. Maldiney acknowledges Kandinsky's attempt to access an a-cosmic, ahistoric inner self, but considers this a negative characteristic. For Maldiney, genuine self-transformation requires a transformation of one's being-in-the-world and meaning, which Kandinsky's a-cosmic paintings cannot achieve. The disagreement between the two philosophers lies not in their descriptions of aesthetic experience but at the level of metaphysics.