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ANTHROPOSOPHY AND PAINTING Conversations with 17 artists
Some of the contributions were printed in several magazines, but now they are available in a single volume. Andreas Maeckler`s intense conversations with 17 artists (and three art historians) about "anthroposophy and painting" was published by the largest art book publishing company in Europe. It is rarely the case in the history of art of the 2oth century that glory and misery are set in such close relation- are we dealing with artistic creation in the spirit of anthroposophy, with elaborate products stemming from the ghetto of a philosophical movement, with the stubborn insistance ( sinceapprox. 75 years) on superannuated principles, perhaps even with dictatorship in the realm of art? Or do Rudolf Steiners`s impulses encourage the growth of innovative painting, which is practised a good deal more consciously than all efforts heretofore, revealing itself to be truly progressive? We have to concede to Andreas Maeckler, art historian of a renowned publishing company for art books, who has written his P.H.D thesis about "The doctrin of colour and mode of painting in anthroposophy" that in spite of all the divided feelings, which the study of this elaborate documentation could inspire, leaves a lot to be thankful about:
He was always helpful and fair to those artists who are completely unknown outside of the anthroposphical society, whose work, moreover, does not have any market value to speak of. He committed himself entirely to the individual works of each of his interviewees- according to the publicity text of the publishing company they are the "17 most important anthroposhophic-orientated artists (and three art historians)" - and encouraged each participant to portray his own work extensively and in detail. But the more he questioned the artists and specialists juxtaposing their statements, the richer in the whole picture became. It may well be that the "concise introduction to the anthroposophical history of painting" in it´s lively, sometimes cheeky diction might not be approved by all anthroposophers. No matter whether he deals with vegetable colours in water-colouring, an object of research, fabrication, and application for Günter Meier during his last thirty years, or with the magnificent design of the Waldorf school/Engelberg by the architect Rex Raab and the painter Peter Andreas Mothes - each of the conversations has fascinating qualities, mediating between the different schools of thought.Who doesn' t enjoy looking back at the collaboration with Fritz Fuchs , when he decorated Waldorf schools or social-pedagogic institution with his glazing? And who didn' tenjoy participating in one of the painting classes at an art school or theGoetheanum? -
It doesn`t matter whether you read the book from the beginning,or start reading with the chapter whose artist interests you most: the reading is always pleasant. and it hits home - this is the diabolical cunning of the book. For if you read a few more pages and chapters, the idyll turns into it's opposite. To give an example: Wilfried Ogilvie, the founder of the Alanus Hochschule (academy), was asked to thoroughly disclose his viewpoint, including his "enthusiasm for the social force of art. Yet in a small but significant paragraph of one of the following chapters, K.H. Türk, the founder of the free academy of art/Nürtingen raises the question whether the Alanus Hochschule does not infact dictate a stile, or even dictate art. Maeckler, sometimes the agent provocateur, shows himself conciliartory and mediates: a "preference for a style" would be the correct expression for the phenomenon that the glazed water colour paintings of the anthroposophic school generally lead to rather uniform results. But once the feeling of discomfort about this un- critical accord becomes manifest, it is growing step by step.It culminates with the concluding contribution by Dieter Rudloff, whose portrayals of modern art have furnished the anthropological society for years with quality and controversy.: "What did Rudolf Steiner really mean by his term of a spiritually enhanced art?"
The perfidy in the exceedingly erudite argumentation of this book lies in the little interludes, which confirm a certain traditional relation between theo- sophy and fascism. Analogies with former East German ideology whose doctrine cast painting for years in the rigid shape of "social realism"; become evident. The question poses itself, whether or not in the anthropological society of today, a similar situation might prevail. Are not most of the anthropologically orientated artists with their work puppets of "Goetheanism" which centres around the Goetheanum? The controversy between the painter Hans Herrmann, long-time head of the "section of visual art" and Martin Schmidt-Brabant, the director of the Goetheanum, who sacked him in spite of much resistance, is one example in this book that supports this suspicion. Another recurrent subject of these conversations: kitsch and art, the longing for an intact world in the imagery of anthroposophically orientated painters.
But in spite of all these aspirations, reality, the banal everyday life, with ist aberrations and confusion catches up with them, time and again. Although the ideals and claims of Rudolf Steiner`s disciples may be plausible and distinctly expressed, the astonishing fact remains that in seventy years this pictorial incentive of Rudolf Steiner has gained so little public interest! Maybe - and hope remains - that this book may introduce a larger reading public to Rudolf Steiner's contribution to art and to the work of his disciples. On the other hand, it might happen that it finally reveals this impulse as Rudolf Steiner`s original achievement, a new mode of thinking that has been copied by many and developed on by few.
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