The spiritual life of human-kind follows the shape of a pyramid, occasionally rising to an apex of spiritual perception when an artist of genius comes forward to lead the way, and sinking to the bottom of the pyramid when culture produces nothing but decadence. The colors a painter smears onto a canvas can delight the eye, but they can also cause the viewer to receive vibrations that resonate within the soul. Born in Russia in 1866, Kandinsky was a pioneer of the abstract, who used Concerning the Spiritual in Art to argue for the transcendental importance of his vocation.