Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was a philosopher, social reformer, and architect who founded Anthroposophy after breaking with the Theosophical movement based on the teachings of Helena Blavatsky. Combining diverse intellectual and religious traditions, its program of spiritual development is advanced through the Anthroposophical Society, a global organization headquartered at the Goetheanum in Switzerland.
To communicate the principles of Anthroposophy, Steiner delivered thousands of unscripted public lectures, during which he would use a blackboard as a tool for thinking, directing his audience’s attention, or visualizing a connection. Over the course of the lecture, these diagrammatic sketches would be worked up into a picture that is also a document of the intellectual process: an action painting of the mind. At the conclusion of the lecture, these drawings in colored chalk on black paper were lifted from the board, fixed, and dated.
Like many of the artifacts and documents included in this exhibition, these drawings were not initially conceived as works of art in the conventional sense. Yet their fusion of thought and gesture in the production of an image illustrates the process of visual thinking that Steiner called “Thought Pictures.” This methodology would influence pioneering artists from Hilma af Klint to Joseph Beuys, all of whom shared Steiner’s conviction that art and science spring from the same spiritual source.
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 5th December 1920, Dornach), 1920. silkscreen print on paper of archival image. 90 × 143 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 11th February 1922, Dornach), 1922. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 90 × 137 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 11th February 1922, Dornach), 1922. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 90 × 137 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 29th December 1922, Dornach), 1922. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 92 × 122 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 20th October 1923, Dornach), 1923. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 93 × 147 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 30th November 1923, Dornach), 1923. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 88 × 127 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 21th December 1923, Dornach), 1923. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 91 × 128 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 5th April 1920, Dornach), 1920. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 93 × 134 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 7th April 1920, Dornach), 1920. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 92 × 112 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 30th June 1924, Dornach), 1924. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 88 × 133 cm
Rudolf Steiner, Untitled (blackboard drawing from a lecture held on the 9th June 1923, Dornach), 1923. silkscreen prints on paper of archival images. 89 × 138 cm
