Seeing the Invisible: On Kandinsky

by Michel Henry, Scott Davidson (Translator)

Michel Henry was one of the leading French philosophers of the twentieth century. His numerous works of philosophy are all organized around the theme of life. In contrast to the scientific understanding of life as a biological process, Henry's philosophy develops a conception of life as an immediate feeling of one's own living. Seeing the Invisible marks Henry's most sustained engagement in the field of aesthetics. Through an analysis of the life and works of Wassily Kandinsky, Henry uncovers the philosophical significance of Kandinsky's revolution in painting: that abstract art reveals the invisible essence of life. Henry shows that Kandinsky separates color and line from the constraints of visible form and, in so doing, conveys the invisible intensity of life. More than just a study of art history, this book presents Kandinsky as an artist who is engaged in the project of painting the invisible and thus offers invaluable methodological clues for Henry's own phenomenology of the invisible.

Genres: Philosophy, Art

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Cassian Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean-Luc Marion referred to Henry -- and this is the first of his books that I read. It is an intriguing look at Kandinsky and his art. So, I have been looking and books of Kandinsky and recently bought a poster of "Dominant Curve" which hangs on my wall and which draws me into new discoveries each day. Much of Henry's book (and Kandinsky, too) makes more sense as I apply it to my experience of music. Music makes the most direct appeal to my interior; it is the closest I know to unmediated, direct experience. I suppose that suggests that I read this book, on some level, as "Hearing the Invisible: On Vinteuil."

[Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like Henri de Lubac, I was able to get hold of who Michel Henry is as well as his phenomenological reflections on art through Jean-Luc Marion. And it was very timely, for I was able to gather some insights that are useful for my philosophy class this semester. Indeed, he is right in saying that in abstraction as means, one gets a grasp of reality. Art is truly art if it is abstract in itself.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Using a method similar to that employed in his other books on psychoanalysis and Christianity, Michel Henry reads Kandinsky's philosophy of art through a phenomenology of Life. For Kandinsky, abstract, non-representational art allows the underlying and grounding affectivity and tonality of Life to become, in a certain sense, 'visible' (hence the title, Seeing the Invisible). That is, without the interference and mediation of represented objects, objects of the external and ek-static world, non-representational art displays the inner, clandestine Life of the pre-ekstatic horizon; it does so without directing the observer towards some phenomenal object (a house or a pair of shoes, for instance). So whereas a representational artist, like van Gogh, will paint a pair of shoes or a farm through a stylistic lens (impressionism in the case of van Gogh), Kandinsky will paint red circles, blue lines, and yellow triangles in order to (1) represent non-representable or ideal objects and (2) use these ideal objects to manifest the inner affectivity.

The world of Life, affectivity, and, to borrow from Kandinsky, tonality, are, according to Henry, what make the visible world possible. Only through these hidden dimensions are things such as farms and pairs of shoes possible.

I would only recommend this book to those interested in art and Michel Henry. If you're just interested in knowing about Henry's phenomenology of Life, you probably won't learn anything new about it from this book.