The Art Section of the School of Spiritual Science

With the Anthroposophical Art Association.

Welcome to Anthroposophical Art

The Art Section and the Anthroposophical Art Association are working together to promote their unique approach to arts, crafts and all things creative.

The Spiritual in Art

While all art reflects the spirit of the age in which it is created, and most art expresses at least something of the spirit of the individual or group process that has created it, not all artists consciously place spiritual questions as the subject of their explorations. Some may feel that the spirit is not particularly fashionable at the moment, others that it raises fundamental challenges in a world of complex and frequently polar religious views. While great movements in art have, of course, been founded out of such intense enquiry, in our modern world, the profane and the bizarre seem to be stronger motivators than the desire to delve into the sacred worlds within. This may be a missed opportunity for many, for as humanity grows and develops, so does our inner world. There is a lot of new material to be explored.

Our aim, as an organisation, is therefore to support the work of artists who perceive themselves to be beings of spirit in a world made out of spirit, who place spiritual research into the subject of their art and seek to tune their working methods to the breathing rhythm that lives between the inner human and the outer material world. Fundamentally, this approach is a discipline. The practitioner must strive to awaken an understanding of themselves as a human being, of their potential to create out of thier inner explorations, of their origins in the spiritual world, and of their destiny here on Earth. All this in addition to developing and honing the practical skills as a painter, sculptor, architect or creator in other media.
There are no set rules of style, our members may delve more or less deeply into the philosophies of Goethe or Rudolf Steiner, and while many will have worked with artistic exercises designed to deepen a sense of the spiritual, others are just attracted to the life that they feel in the colours and forms that seem to be produced when the artist starts to open to the fluid spaces of the spirit within.  There is no religious affiliation of our organisation, as it is up to the individual whether they feel connected to any particular deity or spirit being.

We provide support to our members through a number of activities: 

Each year, we hold at least one conference, attended by members and guests. Recently we have taken the theme of "Colour" and built on the observations of Geothe, Steiner, Kandinsky and others into the reality of colour as a bridge between the outer and inner worlds.  

We also provide individual support for artists, particularly through a small travel fund. 

Occasionally, we secure funding to provide a short residency, or to commission an artist to research a question and produce a piece based on their explorations. 

And currently we are trying to set up a small gallery in London, where artists can display their work, and we also hope to arrange exhibitions from other disciplines working from different standpoints. This would provide a great opportunity to share our questions with a wider public, not only through exhibition, but through associated workshops. This is a truly special opportunity to bring our work to the heart of London.

Finally, we have this web site, where there is a gallery space for members and where soon we hope to be able to offer a sales facility too.

Painting


Working with colour, its moods, the inner light that shines forth, is at the very heart of our paintings. Some of our artists work purely with an abstraction of form, trying to convey inner soul moods, or their perceptions of nature, the stars and the planets through layers of colour, others work more figuratively, representing sometimes deeper mysteries through a symbolic representation of the world around.

"Colour shows itself dynamically as an in- and out-breathing ‘being’. Relationships arise in connection with the happenings in the course of the year, with the plants’ growing, fading, producing fruit, and the movements of the sun and moon. The archetypal image of the colour circle is always present as a formative principle in natural processes, although often more or less veiled or modified."  Bettina Muller, 2017

Sculpture


If painting lives in the realm of colour, then sculpture lives in form. Held between expansion and contraction, every form pushes out from within or receives from without. Through these opposites dynamic rhythms come into being, and we use these to bring to expression the inner nature of the materials, and the outer ideas that we wish to bring to them.

Architecture


Architects were left a wonderful legacy in the buildings in and around the Goetheanum, in Dornach, Switzerland, designed largely by Rudolf Steiner and housing the centre of our world organisation. Over one hundred years of architectural development has since taken place by architects around the globe.

Our work tends to be organic, and listens carefully to the qualities of place into which the building is to be brought. At the same time it is expressive, and through the rhythms of space, of light, and of substance, living surfaces are formed.

Arts and Crafts


In addition to the traditional fine arts we have many artists working in a variety of media that blur the lines between art and craft. These include textile artists, print makers, graphic designers, photograpers and people working in mixed media. 

Address

c/o Gordon Clarke
Art Section,
Sigford Hall,
Devon TQ12 6LD

Contacts

         
Phone: +44 (1626) 824979     

Links

Anthroposophical Society GB
Art Section Dornach
Rudolf Steiner House

© Copyright 2018 Art Section UK