Customer Reviews

Point and Line to Plane (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Reading this book is like entering the sanctum sanctorum of mark making. It is a first class journey through the thought processes of a major 20th century innovator as he introduces, evaluates and places in relationship the elements of drawing and composition. While not for the faint of heart, Kandinsky writes with such endearing specificity about the exact function of each component (point, line, plane) the marks take on lives of their own. His simultaneous portrayal of the function of marks through words and the distillation of words through marks offers insights into the creative process for artists at every stage of development. The organization of the material is logical, as expected from a man who started out as a lawyer, as well as magical, coming from a man who ascribed to the spiritual in art. For all its apparent simplicity it is well worth the time to savor in small portions. I particularly like the layers of meaning to be found in his concepts. There is a cascading effect to reading a description, applying the principle to an art process and then revisiting the text to have further meaning reveal itself. He literally views drawing from the inside out.

Kandinsky's goal seems admirable, to create a vocabulary in which abstract visual art can be discussed. That would allow a theory of abstraction to develop, with the promise that art would advance as its theory advanced. He argues his case well, he was trained as a lawyer after all, using analogy to that most abstract of arts: music.

He presents his thoughts in three sections following logical progression: point, line, and plane. As one would expect in discussing visual impression, Kandinsky acknowledges the mathematical point but generalizes it to isolated, self-contained marks of many kinds. Already, in the zero-dimensional world, Kandinsky begins his conceptual whirl: a point is not just a point, but a tension, a temporal presence, and even a sound - though I'm not convinced that this "sound" relates to audible impressons. The point even manifests as a period in punctuation. Its presence and position changes or erases a sentence's meaning; presumably, one is to infer that it has similar meaning in visual compostion.

Moving on to Line, Kandinsky crams a huge number of concepts onto the page: temperature, hue plus white and black, movement and force, angle, sound and triple sound, and even the duality of male/active vs. female/passive. Certainly there is much to discuss in all of these things, but the color, sound, and sex of a specific diagonal angle elude me. They are clear enough to Kandinsky, though, who announces these relations with absolute certainty and inevitability. His writing makes me think of mysteries revealed with papal infallibility, and with internal reason beyond human reasoning. Discussion of Plane drives even deeper into thickets of interlaced concept. I admit that I was never able to hack a clear path for myself through his conceptual undergrowth.

In the end, Kandinsky's vision remains a statement of his own inner experience - not of thinking that could be shared and pushed forward by other minds. Instead of showing the world how to think, he shows the world how he thinks. Although I'm no great fan of his art, that glimpse fascinates me, and is reason enough for reading and experiencing this remarkable text.

-- wiredweird

I think this book is useful for understanding Kandinsky's art but I think it is most useful for artists trying to form their own ideas about art. The reason for this is that in ascribing characteristics to many aspects of art for example lines curves and planes, the author makes us as artists think about how we use these aspects of art in our work. So, in other words, he gets you thinking about the meaning of all those marks on paper we make. I think most artists will find their own explanations of the various types of line, curve, color and plane, what this book does is give you the idea for doing so in the first place.

Kandinsky is by far my favorite painter and he has influenced my painting so I had to buy this book. I've found it useless in helping me but it's valuable in reading how Kandinsky thought about the elements in his work.

This is a wonderful book for advanced students and practitioners of art and design. It was, along with Kandinsky's other book, "Concerning the Spiritual in Art", one of the greatest influences in the formation of my own personal vision. It is technical, not for the casual reader, but for those artists or designers looking to build more than just a pretty picture, to instill meaning in their art or design work, to advance their studies beyond the basics, it is essential reading.

I purchased this as a gift to someone who enjoys looking at kadinsky's works.
This book is all diagrams and geometric line drawings, complicated looking and written like a geometry lesson.

Im certain is a help to artists who are seeking this type of info but the description did not indicate what type of illustrations were inc'd very well.

I wanted to let anyone in my situation know its not pic's of artwork its technical specs only.

I got this book brand new and must say that it is poorly written and very hard to understand. This may be alright for individuals who are familiar with thier field, but if you are new to your field and just starting out I would not recommend this reading as it will only confuse you.

They do not describe subjects clearly and the wording is very dry. Our school recieved many complaints about it and as a result they discontinued the use of this book in the class room.

This item was received in a very timely , and in excellent condition.

Este libro se ha convertido en el indispensable para los estudiantes de artes plásticas, nos define el punto, la linea y el plano desde muchos puntos de vista además de explicar la generación y desarrollo de los tres elementos básicos del arte visual.