Picasso may refine a “Woman with a Mandolin,” to a dozen intersecting lines that disclose neither woman nor mandolin, but _both_ were present in his mind’s eye when he created his work, and without them the work has no reason for existing. It is here that one begins to understand Kandinsky’s attitude, and how diametrically he diverges from Picasso. The two have nothing in common save the desire to produce more abstract art, but Picasso abstractions are based on the _outer_ world, while Kandinsky’s are based on the _inner_. When Picasso has refined nature, that is, things _outside_ him, to the _last degree_, to the simplest mode of expression in line and mass, he has reached an _impasse_, further progress is impossible, further scientific subdivision in unattainable, his art in _that direction_ is finished. But Kandinsky has before him an unlimited view. With him the elimination of nature, of all things _physical_ from his compositions, simply gives him greater freedom in the painting of compositions representing things--moods--_spiritual_. * * * * * To go on with his own explanation, not in his exact words, but in substance: It is thus seen that in both the first and second signs in the development of art, the objective foundation or background is not of simply secondary importance, but of _first_; it is essential because without it the work would not exist. To create _pure art_ it is necessary to eliminate this background of the physical, and substitute for it _pure artistic form_, which alone can give the picture independent life. This step we find in the _dawning third period_ of painting--_Compositional painting_. According to the scheme of the three periods, we have arrived at the third one--which was designated as the _Aim_. In the _compositional painting_ which is developing today we see the signs of the attainment of the higher step of _pure art_, in which the remains of the _practical_ desire (all evidences of objectivity) can be perfectly separated, which can speak from soul to soul in purely artistic language. The conscious and oftentimes also still unconscious striving, which strongly (and ever stronger) shows itself today, to replace the objective (subject paintings) by pure construction (pure composition) is the first sign of the dawning of that _pure art_ to which the past art periods inevitably led. I have been trying to briefly deal with the entire development and more especially the situation today in broad schematic outlines; therefore there are many deficiencies (gaps) which necessarily remain uncovered, and there are passed over many interesting lesser developments, which are inevitable in progress, like smaller branches on the tree, which extend outward notwithstanding the tree’s growth upward.