Concerning the Spiritual in Art ...

“Painting is an art, and art is not vague production, transitory and isolated, but a power which must be directed to the improvement and refinement of the human soul . . . . If art refrains from doing this work, a chasm remains unbridged, for no other power can take the place of art in this activity. . . . It is very important for the artist to gauge his position aright, to realize that he has a duty to his art and to himself, that he is not king of the castle but rather a servant of a nobler purpose. He must search deeply into his own soul, develop and tend it, so that his art has something to clothe, and does not remain a glove without a hand.

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.”

(Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art)