Why were Steiner’s ideas for the visual arts so relevant for early twentieth-century artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian, who attended his lectures and read his books? Are they still relevant one hundred years later, as art history is now discovering artists like Hilma af Klint and others who worked further with these ideas? Can deeper purposes of art be realized from such indications and provide pathways for future artistic creativity? A new training, carried out in connection with the Visual Art Section of North America, will explore these and many other questions pertinent to a human, AnthroArt training.
The first session of a new anthroposophic art training will begin in Taiwan in November 2023 with the theme “The Art and Individuality of Color: An Overview of the Painting Indications and Color Theory of Rudolf Steiner.” Given in both English and Chinese, the three- to four-year course will meet both in-person and online and include homework projects.
The course will give an overview of Steiner’s revolutionary approach to the visual arts, in particular painting, drawing, graphic design, form drawing, and art history, beginning with his sketches for the First Goetheanum cupola paintings, his lectures on color theory and practice, and the series of artistic training sketches produced in the final years of his life (sculpture will be added at a later date). We will also explore how many artists took these indications further in various creative ways, developing different styles and pathways.
Working primarily in transparent watercolor, teaching artist Van James will guide the program as artistic director and invite other experienced artists to complement the sessions. Lecture-demonstrations, conversations, and active studio painting will take place on-site at Shan Mei Zhen AnthroArt Center in Taichung, Taiwan, beginning Saturday, November 25, through Friday, December 1, 2023. Beginners and experienced artists are welcome. Participation in shorter segments of the training is possible.
The special feature in painting is that the element of spiritual seeing and of artistic creativity come in contact with each other… Perhaps in nothing as much as in the deepening in such problems as the mystery of color can we celebrate our most intimate uniting of the soul with spiritual science. For when we participate in the living ebb and flow of color itself, we rise truly out of ourselves and participate in cosmic life. Color is the soul of nature and of the entire cosmos, and we participate in this soul when we experience color.
Rudolf Steiner
For further information, schedule, and timetable contact albertruby.tai@gmail.com
Image source Poster of the training
