Rudolf Steiner and Contemporary Art
An exhibition of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in cooperation with the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
Rudolf Steiner – Alchemy of the Everyday
An exhibition of the Vitra Design Museum
13 May – 3 October 2010
Hollerplatz 1
38440
Wolfsburg, Germany
Never before has the “Steiner cosmos” been as comprehensively portrayed as in the two parallel exhibitions “Rudolf Steiner and Contemporary Art” and “Rudolf Steiner. The Alchemy of the Everyday.” This large-scale, two part project takes up a phenomenon that has only attracted little attention in the past, but which is among the most exciting chapters in modern art and intellectual history. Major artists ranging from Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian to Joseph Beuys regularly occupied themselves with Rudolf Steiner’s universal world of ideas and drew valuable impulses from them for their work. With the start of the twenty-first century, this link has a received new brisance resulting from the increasing interest contemporary artists have been showing in Steiner. Against the backdrop of the lively debates regarding ecological responsibility, the religious search for meaning, and an economic system that has spun out of control, the integral world view such as Steiner’s is simultaneously experiencing growing attention.
The part of the exhibition entitled “The Alchemy of the Everyday” assembled by the Vitra Design Museum examines the impact of this central twentieth-century reformer in the fields of architecture, art, and society. It is the world’s first comprehensive retrospective dealing with Steiner outside an anthroposophical context.
The exhibition “Rudolf Steiner and Contemporary Art” organized by the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart attempts to unlock Steiner’s Universalist world of ideas based of the works of fifteen present-day artists.
The exhibitions are supported by Volkswagen Finacial Services AG and by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.