Affinità elettive: Michail Cechov e Vasilij Kandinskij. Il concetto di immaginazione e di necessità interiore nella cultura figurativa e teatrale russa dei primi del Novecento.

In Kandinsky’s On the Spiritual In Art and in Mikhail Chekhov’s To the Actor. On the Technique of Acting it is possible to find similar subjects and themes, in particular related to the concept of inner necessity and imagination. Their interest in Theosophy and in Anthroposophy is well known. It is known that Mikhail Chekhov was fascinated by Steiner’s philosophy, and this has also been asserted for Kandinsky, even if some art historians do not agree. Furthermore, it is possible to outline a common root in their thoughts in Russia during the first decade of the twentieth century. Both of them lived in Saint Petersburg, where their ethical and aesthetic vision had the chance to develop. This is the subject of the present paper