Tuesday, November 10, 2015

New Italian anthroposophical architecture newsletter/magazine

Friends in Italy have started a new anthroposophical architecture newsletter/magazine called Dynameis, edited by Rossano Albatici.

Dynameis is pubished only in a PDF version and is currently free. 

The first issue includes an Italian translation of the first part of an article by David Adams, "Rudolf Steiner's First Goetheanum as an Illustration of Organic Functionalism" but with new color photos. 

• Here is a link to the PDF version of Dynameis

• Here is a link to the website of the publishers



Sunday, September 13, 2015

Upcoming Exhibition in Ottawa Canada












Invitation to Anthroposophical Artists in North America
to submit work to an open exhibition to be held in Ottawa, Canada,
on the theme of “Encountering Our Humanity,” in August 2016.

Digital (JPG only) images of paintings, sculpture, mixed media, multi-media and architectural work created in the last two years (architecture in the past 15 years) may be submitted by March 1, 2016 to the email addresses below. Final selection will be made by March 15, 2016 for works to be included in a virtual slide show that will run during the “Encountering Our Humanity” conference venue, La Cité Collégiale in Ottawa, Canada, August 7-14, 2016. From these works, a further, smaller selection of pieces will be made for actual exhibition in a gallery space (to be announced) for the same period of time. (It is hoped that this selection may provide the basis for possible future shows.)

Please email images (no larger than 2MB) to sylvierichard@rogers.com and to aka.vanjames@gmail.com, together with name of artist, title of work, dimensions, and cost if for sale. In addition, include a one-to-three sentence statement concerning your art: “what you are striving to achieve in your art”, or “what are your artistic questions?” A $25 fee will be required of each artist selected for the final exhibition in order to cover costs for a catalog. Shipping of actual work to and from the venue and insurance is the responsibility of the artist. Hand deliveries are possible two days before the opening. Potential purchases will be handled directly by the artists, but a 20% commission will be asked for to defray exhibition costs. (The selection of work is final.)

Selection of artwork will be made by Sylvie Richard and Van James, professional artists and members of the Visual Art Section of North America. Selection will be based on a wide range of styles and mediums expressive of the quality of work being done in North America today. These works will be shown together with a pre-existing and somewhat abridged exhibit of anthroposophical architecture (panels with photographs and possible models) originally shown in Europe. North American architects are invited to contribute to the broadening of this part of the exhibit.

For the Selection Committee,
Sylvie Richard sylvierichard@rogers.com

Sunday, July 12, 2015

New Spring/Summer 2015 Newsletter

See newsletters, past and present, in the right hand column to read online.  Paypal European subscritions are found there as well.



Sunday, June 21, 2015

New Art Training in English in Switzerland

Art and Modern Western Spirituality
An Art Program in English 

Three Trimesters at the neueKUNSTschule in Basel, Switzerland



Beginning September 21, 2015 the neueKUNSTschule in Basel will be offering a new program in English. The course will consist of three trimester terms, each lasting 11 to 12 weeks. Each trimester can be attended individually. Attending all three trimesters will qualify as a first year of the full artistic training towards the Diploma of the neueKUNSTschule.

The program is designed with the following prospective students in mind:
  • Students who wish to deepen their understanding of art and contemporary Anthroposophy without committing to a full training.
  • Practicing Artists or young artists who have recently completed their studies, who would like to explore and research the relationship between art and Anthroposophy on a profound, up-to-date level. 
  • Students who are pursuing a career outside of the arts and are interested in cultivating artistic skills as a basis for a more effective engagement in their careers. Whether Waldorf-teachers, doctors, scientists or professionals in other fields, the course holds as a principle - man’s creative need for the artistic in the work he undertakes.

Classes will be given on four mornings and one afternoon per week. The school studio rooms are available 24 hours a day for students to continue their work in between. 

Contents

1st Trimester: Colour

With reference to Goethe’s Colour Theory and Rudolf Steiner’s colour studies and their further development we will approach the being of colour in its painterly elements. In drawing, we will explore the different possibilities contained within shading and the use of light and dark.

The practical work will be supplemented with theoretical studies of colour theory and the history of (post)-modern art and contemporary art in relation to colour. We will use a variety of materials from self-produced tempera to watercolour, ink and a wide range of drawing devices.

2nd Trimester: Visionary and Imaginative Qualities in Art

What is the source of inner pictures? How can we find access to our visionary and imaginative life through painting? How do we develop 'exact fantasy' in our artistic work? Those are the core questions of the second term. With a variety of approaches and methods, among them working with fairy tales, we will awaken our form- and narrative fantasy, so that we can create pictures out of what lives in our soul. This work will combine drawing and painting as means of awakening our hidden resources. 

The theoretical work will concentrate on Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on art and the sources of fantasy and on the visionary in art history and contemporary art.

3rd Trimester: Perception and intuitive Art.

What more is there to see? How do we experience the visible as a gateway to the invisible? In reference to Steiner’s descriptions of the hidden and suppressed beings in nature we will explore the realm of perception. Through what we learn to perceive in painting and through our studies we will come to see new dimensions within the open secrets of world and nature. We will be working with new techniques of pastel, tempera and watercolour and will be spending much of the time working outdoors.

In the theoretical studies we will be looking at philosophies of perception and investigate the meaning of the discovery of perception in (post)-modern art.

The Program consists of 18 hours a week. The cost is 2900.- CHF per trimester.
Registration is open until 2 weeks before the trimester starts.
For questions or registration: mail@neuekunstschule.ch
Or contact us through our website: www.neuekunstschule.ch 




Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Summer 2015 Conference in Portland, Oregon



 A Public Art Conference
  Sponsored by the North American Visual Arts Section of the School of Spiritual Science     

Location:
Portland Waldorf High School
2300 SE Harrison, Milwaukie, Oregon 97222



Today we have passed and are living through the 100-year anniversary of the inauguration of an anthroposophical artistic work, begun by the spiritual initiate Rudolf Steiner in 1907 in Germany and continued through the design and creation of the two Goetheanum buildings in Switzerland. Steiner himself pointed to the need for renewing, if not transforming, an initiative after about 100 years (3 x 33 1/3 year periods relating to a Christic rhythm), lest its vitality and relevance fade away. Many feel that it is time to revisit and hopefully revitalize, expand, deepen, and transform this artistic work so that it can continue its further development into the future. We hope this conference will be one step in that direction. 

Some of our questions: Is there such a thing as “anthroposophical art” or “anthroposophical style”? Is what is most essential about practicing a visual art out of anthroposophical inspiration a particular appearance or a medium used in certain ways? Or is it adherence to certain principles, ideals, and “rules” that is most important? Or is it more a matter of particular methods and manners of creatively working? How can we take into account the further development of both humanity and the visual arts since the time of Rudolf Steiner? How can the work of artists serve present and future human evolution?

It is likely that Rudolf Steiner would have had other things to say and would have demonstrated other approaches to art had he lived long enough for artists to approach him with further questions. Consider the dramatic difference in outer appearance of the two Goetheanum buildings that he designed in Switzerland.

If as artists we aspire to serve our fellow human beings and the larger cause of human evolution, then our study of Rudolf Steiner’s own artwork is only one starting point. If human consciousness is evolving, even within the span of a hundred years, then we need to carefully observe the soul-spiritual forces and trends at work in human and world evolution up to the present.

As we live with these questions, the practice of our art will become less a form of self-expression and more a path of spiritual inquiry and research. We will focus on the present and future of visual arts practice created out of anthroposophical inspiration.

 Conference Schedule

Friday, July 31

5:00 – "First Class Conversation: The mantra of Lesson 17 and the transformation of substance. Introduction by Bert Chase, and reflections on the theme by the members. 
(must bring blue card)

6:00 – Dinner

7:30 pm – Listening Bowls Practice
Led by Carrie Gibbons
Entering into this daily practice, as an aid to our conversations on the theme, we will attempt to create a shared space where together we can practice interest in the other person exploring our theme.

7:50 pm – Art in Service of Human Evolution: The Cultivation of “Artistic Feeling”
Introduction by Michael Howard
By deepening our understanding and experience of Rudolf Steiner’s contribution to the visual arts, we will enhance rather than diminish our creative freedom. We can start by asking how the elements of Steiner’s art serve the spiritual needs of humanity in our time. A certain approach to this question can lead to an experience of new capacities awakening in me vital to my humanity. These new capacities fostered by working anthroposophically with the arts can include perceiving and working with the living etheric forces; developing the free thinking, feeling, and willing of the spiritual self; and developing empathy and love, with a resulting capacity to develop genuine community. Such explorations lead one to feel the inner freedom to create authentic and original works of art that are not derivative of Steiner or others.

During the conference after each approximately 30-minute presentation, we will divide into smaller groups for further discussion and conversation, meeting at the end to share with the whole conference the results of the work of each group. How we do this will depend on the numbers of persons participating.

 8:20 – Small Group Discussions
 9:00 – Sharing by Small Groups with the Plenum

 Saturday, August 1


9:00 am – Listening Bowls Practice
Led by Carrie Gibbons

9:15 am Local Artists: Discussion on Interviews
By Patricia Lynch and Carrie Gibbons
Patricia and Carrie will share impressions from interviews conducted with more than 20 regional
visual artists by using a series of questions to explore individuals' practice and understand
what is living in the minds and hearts of artists in this area.

9:45 – Refreshment Break
10:00 – Small Group Discussions
11:30 – Sharing by Small Groups with the Plenum

12:15 – Lunch Break

2:00 pm –  ­ Artistic Workshops
These afternoon workshops will tackle the conference theme in different, more active ways, as it can arise within a particular visual art medium or way of working.

The Middle Path of the Artist...
Led by Patrick Stolfo
Using the clay medium, we will seek an experiential understanding of symbolic, imitative, and the "synthesis of the ideal and the real" expressions in art. Our explorations should serve to inform the 4:30 Saturday conversation.    

A Short Glimpse into the Movement of Color in the First 3 of Rudolf Steiner’s Training Sketches for Painters
Led by Laura Summer
Asked by painter Henni Geck around 1922 to inaugurate a training for painters similar to that for eurythmists, Rudolf Steiner responded with a sequence of 23 color sketches in pastels as “picture seeds” to be re-experienced and re-created by being worked out freely as watercolor paintings as the first steps of a new training for painters. As we learn to work in painting with color as our starting point, these sketches can be our teachers. We will work with watercolor and maybe some other media.
Experiences with Social Sculpture
Led by David Adams and Carrie Gibbons
Working with this relatively new approach to a “social art,” we will engage in a number of artistic, aesthetic, and social processes, including practices to enhance perception, gather or transform substances, and consider movement and archetypal forces.

4:00 – Refreshment Break

4:30 – The Emergence of the True, Living Motif in the Artistic Process
Introduction by Patrick Stolfo.
A presentation of some basic principles of the anthroposophical artistic impulse as articulated by Rudolf Steiner, leading to a discussion on how we find a genuine spiritual essence in our artwork (beyond physical, etheric, and astral levels) between the husks of mere symbolism and imitation. What is the nature and meaning of “semblance” in our art, the forging of the “appearance” of the soul-spirit in the guise of the physical medium?

5:00– Small Group Discussions
5:45 – Sharing by Small Groups with the Plenum

6:00 – Supper Break

7:30 – The Wider Perspective –­ Reflections on Anthroposophical Art
Led by Bert Chase
Thoughts on how this question is being carried within the Visual Arts Section, the relationship of these questions to the working of the Collegium of the School of Spiritual Science in North America, and the interest within the Anthroposophical Society of how artists can speak to our current situation.

8:00 – Small Group Discussions
8:45 – Sharing by Small Groups with the Plenum

 Sunday, August 2


9:00 am – Listening Bowls Practice
Led by Carrie Gibbons

9:15 – The Transformation of Visual Art out of the New Mysteries of Will
Introduction by David Adams.
The transition from the old Mysteries of Wisdom to the new Mysteries of Will is part of a larger evolutionary passage from the Cosmos of Wisdom to the Cosmos of Love that just begins in our Fifth Epoch. In art from the Mysteries of Will it is free initiative in the form of gesture, process, and movement that matter, in relationship to immersive experiences – not, as in past, traditional art, the pictorial visual appearance that can be observed statically. In the will work both dead human souls and the hierarchies, so techniques for relating more consciously to this invisible “will-community” become part of one’s artistic practice, which also acquires a social component.

9:45 – Refreshment Break

10:00 – Small Group Discussions
11:30 – Sharing by Small Groups with the Plenum

12:15  – Lunch Break

2:00 pm – Artistic Workshops
3:30 pm – Closing Plenum Observations and Conversation & Sharing from Workshops

4:30 pm – Conclusion

LINK TO PDF REGISTRATION FORM

LINK TO PDF OF THE CONFERENCE FLYER

LINK TO PDF OF CONFERENCE READING MATERIAL

CONFERENCE FEE: $25.00 Includes snacks and art supplies for workshops


More information by phone in Portland, OR: Carrie Gibbons at (503) 708-8994
More information via email: Christopher Guilfoil  at c.guilfoil@gmail.com



Saturday, March 7, 2015

Summer Art and Craft Immersions in Hawthorne Valley, New York

The Alkion Center at Hawthorne Valley
June 28 – July 3, 2015


Arts and Crafts Immersions: Studio Workshops for Teachers and Artists
Painting/drawing with Martina Angela Müller; clay/wood/stone with Patrick Stolfo;   fiber arts with Candace Christiansen; bookbinding with Lisa Damian
For more information, course descriptions, 
and registration go to:

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Visual Arts Section at the Goetheanum













THE SOURCES
OF ART II
SECTION CONFERENCE
14 – 17 May 2015
Goetheanum
Dornach, Switzerland

Click here for link to the flyer and more information 





CONTRIBUTORS

Prof. Jochen Breme
Studied Sculpture in Bonn/Alfter. Today Senior Lecturer in Sculpture at the Alanus Hoch- schule für Kunst und Gesellschaft, Bonn/Alfter. Founding member of the Bonn artists group „Rhein & Artig“. www.j-breme.de

Cornelia Falkenhan
Sculpture studies in Bonn/Alfter. Further studies at the HfG Offenbach specialising in stage set and costume design. Works as freelance artist and set designer in Frankfurt am Main.

Martin Gutjahr
Apprenticeship in Pottery, studies in Sculpture and Paining. Freelance artist on the Lake Constance and lecturer at Emerson College in England. www.martingutjahr.zenfolio.com

Dr. Roland Halfen
Studied Philosophy, History of Art and Archeology. Author of numerous books and co-worker at the Rudolf Steiner Archive in Dornach.

Prof. Fritz Marburg
Studies in Sculpture and Art Therapy, past rector of the Art Therapy College, Nürtingen. Art educator and artist in the fields of sculpture and Landart.

Hansjörg Palm
Studied Sculpture at the Alanus Hochschule and Emerson College in England. Today a freelance Video and Performance artist and lecturer at the Freie Kunstschule Munzingen.

Riho Peter-Iwamatsu
Eurythmist. Part of the stage ensemble at the Goetheanum.

Dr. Claudia Schlürmann
Studies in Social Education and Sculpture. Many years experience as art educator and lecturer. 2014 PhD in practical Social Sculpture. Works as freelance artist on the Lake Constance. www.atelier-cds.de

Marianne Schubert
Studied Architecture and Landscape Archtecture. Until 2014 freelance work in building and landscape gardening. Since 2014 Leader of the Visual Art Section at the Goetheanum.

Prof. Peer de Smit
Studied at the Drama Academy in Zürich. Professor for Social Theatre. Rector at the University for Social Arts, Ottersberg near Bremen.
Weidlerkwartet (Weidler String Quartet)
Keen Paasen, Mathilde Krabbe, Violin; Jorien van Tuinen, Viola; Joris Boon, Violoncello 

Jochen Breme:Migration

Monday, January 19, 2015

Newsletter #42, Autumn/Winter 2014 Now Posted

Our latest Newsletter is now available to read online. Click here to read.
See subscription information in the right hand column of this blog.
You can now subscribe via PayPal for European subscribers paying in Euros.
There are two subscription types available: Print and Online.


Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Landscape Painting Retreat
August 21thru 25th noon

Experience nature through Color & Form with Jennifer Thomson

Explore Goethe’s Color Wheel as a landscape with veil painting technique. Afternoons create the essence of trees, flowers, mountains & water, in landscape moods with different color exercises inspired by Monet. Some works will develop into finished art.  Composition will be explored. Critique.

 Materials:  gouache paints & charcoal

Work space:  Sun Studio & outdoors into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to experience Nature through direct observation.

Daily class:  9 am to 4:30 pm
Lunch break:  12:30 to 2:30
Tuition:  $250 includes 4 organic veggie lunches & snacks
Deposit:  $75 nonrefundable, to reserve a space
Supplies:  $35 extra or bring your own (list provided)
Accommodations:  www.crestonecolorado.com      www.crestoneeagle.com
Camping:  5 minutes driving to Sun Studio

Info:  Jennifer Thomson, PO Box 894, Crestone, Colorado 81131, 719-937-7694
www.jenniferthomson.net

Join us in Crestone, Colorado…..August 21-25 noon



2015 August 7 thru 11 Art Retreat
Blue…infinite…..Lustre of the soul…Blue’s character moving inward, lighter on the inside and darker on the periphery.  What happens when other colors interact with blue?  Create inner balance as you experience peacefulness through working with blue.

Mornings:  9am, our color work begins with a given blue study that will develop into a painting over the 5 days. We will practice the veiling technique with watercolor, and motif with various artistic methods.

Our focus in the mornings will be to develop form and motif ‘out of the color’, an approach inspired by Goethe and Steiner that perceives colors as the visible outer garments of invisible forces.

Afternoons:  One afternoon session sketching in charcoal or ink, in Colorado’s magnificent nature. Drawing upon the art of Kandinsky and Franz Marc, we will develop landscape sketches into paintings and explore color exercises inspired by Marc’s animal paintings. We will practice animal gestures with light/dark composition in ink.   Create your own color studies.   Material:  watercolor, gouache, ink, pencil or charcoal

Evening Presentations:  Franz Marc & the Blue Rider group, Artistic presentation Jennifer &Ammi
 Health through Anthroposophy with Philip Incao

Tuition:  $355 includes supplies, plus 5 organic veggie lunches & snacks
Deposit:  $75, nonrefundable, to reserve a space
Accommodations:  B&B, Hotel, Camping www.crestonecolorado.com  www.crestoneeagle.com
Meals:  nearby cafes & organic food stores.
Location:  Sun Studio in Crestone, Colorado

Sign up & info:  Jennifer Thomson, POBox 894, Crestone, Colorado, 81131,
Spend 5 artistic rejuvenation days at the foot of sacred mountains:  Time for mineral hot spring soaks & swims. Hike in the National Forest or Sand dunes National Park or visit Crestone’s spiritual centers.  See wildlife.  Renew yourself and your life path in contemplation and color in nature’s beauty in Crestone 8000ft. Alpine Valley.
Art is, after all, only a trace…like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.  Robert Henri


Monday, January 5, 2015

Art Section Newsletter Seeking a New Volunteer Co-Editor.

The Newsletter is looking for a new, volunteer, non-North-American Co-Editor to replace Marion Briggs. Requirements include being an active member of the Art Section, working knowledge of a page layout program (such as Adobe InDesign or maybe Microsoft Publisher) as well as an image-editing program (such as Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements), and being fluent enough in English to edit articles and text (including things like grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.). If  interested, please contact David Adams at ctrarcht.nccn.net.