Colour
GA 291
Preface
By Marie Steiner
(A Free Rendering)
In these pamphlets are appearing the many sayings and utterances upon the nature of art given by Rudolf Steiner to the painters of the Goetheanum in a form never intended for the printed book, but born from what was demanded by the task of the moment. They purport to be the living conversation of the teacher with his pupils where answers were given to questions and desires, and where uncertainties and confusions were cleared away by oft-repeated explanation. The Lectures were stenographed, and we know how often by a slip or slight nuance the vitality and fire of an expression may be missed, but even then in their fresh and limpid nature they are of more value than they would be if forced within a stiff, pedantic style.And, therefore, I feel it my duty to make available in their unspoiled condition the treasures Rudolf Steiner has left with their mighty impulse for a rejuvenation of science, knowledge and art.
Herostratos (the incendiary of Ephesus) can claim a triumph that the wonderful floods of colour exist no more in the cupolas of the Goetheanum! The thoughts and impulses, however, will acquire a double strength from out of the fire itself. The sketches and designs and hints for the composition and colour, and the pictures for the programs of the artistic performances at the Goetheanum have been beautifully reproduced by Messrs Hanfstaengel at Munich and Alinari at Florence.
Frau Dr. Steiner says: “In the summer of 1903 in a number of lessons on the Theory of Colour, Rudolf Steiner, with the help of the flame of a candle and a sheet of paper, showed me the origin of yellow and blue out of light and darkness, and as his eyes shone in happy identification with the subject of discussion he exclaimed:
‘If I now had but ten thousand marks and the necessary instruments I could prove to the world the truth of Goethe's Theory of Colour.’”
The ten thousand marks were not to be had, and Rudolf Steiner's pupils have been left the task and the opportunity of bringing this proof to recognition.
Rudolf Steiner wished to use Goethe's Theory of Colour and his concept of nature as a foundation for a universal world conception; and in 1885 and 1897 he gave evidence of this in his introduction to Goethe's scientific works appearing in Kürschners Ausgabe. (This corresponds to the Everyman's Library
The dogma of natural science and the ossification of philosophic thought prevented the call of Rudolf Steiner from being sufficiently noticed. He had to seek other ways for breaking the numbness of modern thought and loosening the stiff compulsion of its formalism. What he did do cannot be better expressed than in the words of one of his own mystery plays:
“He saw full well that spirit science must
First find a firm foundation, and for this
The sense of science and strict reasoning
Must be released from mania for set form
Through contact with an artist mind, and gain
The inward strength to realize the truth
Of world-relationship in life and deed.”—The Guardian of the Threshold
Vorwort
zur ersten Ausgabe von 1929
Wie bei der Herausgabe anderer für einen Schülerkreis gesprochenen Vorträge, so muß als Begleitwort auch zu diesen am Goetheanum den Malern gegebenen Erörterungen über das Wesen der Farbe hervorgehoben werden, daß sie nicht eine für den Druck gedachte Arbeit darstellen, sondern daß sie aus dem Erleben des Augenblicks mit seinen Aufgaben und Forderungen herausgeboren sind. Sie sind lebendiges Gespräch des Lehrers mit den Schülern, in sich hineinbeziehend dasjenige, was an Fragen und Wünschen innerhalb des Schülerkreises lebte, auch an Unklarheiten, die wiederholte Verdeutlichung erheischen. Die Vorträge wurden stenographiert — und wir wissen ja, wie bei lebhaft und feurig gesprochenen Worten es nicht zu umgehen ist, daß manche Nuance überhört oder verschoben wird. Aber in ihrer unmittelbaren Frische sind sie den vielen Tausenden von Lernenden am Werke Rudolf Steiners mehr wert als irgendeine pedantisch umgestellte Stilisierung. So unterwerfe ich mich denn wieder der mir obliegenden Verpflichtung, in dieser Form des an den Zuhörer gerichteten Wortes den unermeßlich reichen Nachlaß Rudolf Steiners mit seinen gewaltigen Impulsen der Neubelebung für fast jedes Gebiet des Wissens, der Art und Kunst unserer gegenwärtigen Menschheit zugänglich zu machen.
Die wunderbaren Farbenfluten in den beiden Kuppeln des verbrannten Goetheanums sind nicht mehr — Herostrat konnte triumphieren -, die Gedanken und Impulse aber werden mit verdoppelter Kraft aus diesem Feuerbrande heraus wirken. Die in Skizzen hinterlassenen Andeutungen für die Komposition und Farbengebung und die von Rudolf Steiner entworfenen Programmbilder zu den künstlerischen Aufführungen am Goetheanum erscheinen nun allmählich in schönen Farbdruckverfahren.
Als Rudolf Steiner im Sommer 1903 in einer Reihe von Stunden über Farbenlehre an Hand einer Kerzenflamme und eines Bogens Papier mir die Entstehung von Gelb und Blau aus Licht und Finsternis heraus demonstrierte, da leuchteten seine Augen wie in glücklicher Indentifizierung mit dem Wesen dessen, was er sprach, und er sagte: «Wenn ich jetzt zehntausend Mark hätte, um die nötigen Instrumente anzuschaffen, würde ich der Welt die Wahrheit der Goetheschen Farbenlehre beweisen können.»
Es fehlten damals die zehntausend Mark, und die gegebenen Anregungen und Richtlinien wurden von Schülern Rudolf Steiners aufgegriffen, denen es gelingen möge, den Beweis zu erbringen.
Dieser Wunsch Rudolf Steiners - Goethes Farbenlehre, Goethes Naturanschauung zum Ausgangspunkt der Begründung einer geistigen Weltanschauung zu nehmen, führt uns zurück bis in die Anfänge der achtziger Jahre. Und zwischen 1883 und 1897 erschienen seine Einleitungen zu Goethes naturwissenschaftlichen Werken in Kürschners Ausgabe.
Die Dogmatik der naturwissenschaftlichen Anschauung und die Verhärtung des philosophischen Gedankens brachte es mit sich, daß dieser Ruf nicht genügend beachtet wurde. Rudolf Steiner mußte andere Wege betreten, um die Starrheit des heutigen Denkens zu brechen und es vom steifen Formenzwang zu lösen.
Was er getan hat, läßt sich am besten ausdrücken durch Worte, die in einem seiner Mysteriendramen ausgesprochen werden:
Es ward ihm klar, daß Geisteswissenschaft
Nur wahrhaft gut begründet werden könne,
Wenn Sinn für Wissenschaft und strenges Denken
Durch Künstlergeist von steifer Formensucht
Befreit und innerlich erkraftet werden
Zum wahren weltverwandten Sein-Erleben.
Das war die Tat Rudolf Steiners. Und die Künstler können an seinem zündenden Weltenfeuer erleben, wie das Tote wieder lebendig wird und wie die Keimkräfte alles Lebens sich urgewaltig regen, wenn man die starren Wände unseres toten Intellekts durchbricht, die uns vom schöpferischen Worte trennen.
—Marie Steiner
Foreword
to the first edition of 1929
As with the publication of other lectures given to a circle of students, it must be emphasized that these discussions on the nature of color, given to painters at the Goetheanum, are not intended for print, but were born out of the experience of the moment with its tasks and demands. They are a lively conversation between the teacher and the students, incorporating the questions and wishes that were alive within the circle of students, as well as ambiguities that require repeated clarification. The lectures were transcribed in shorthand—and we know how inevitable it is that some nuances are overlooked or shifted when words are spoken vividly and passionately. But in their immediate freshness, they are worth more to the many thousands of students of Rudolf Steiner's work than any pedantically rearranged stylization. So I once again submit to my obligation to make Rudolf Steiner's immeasurably rich legacy, with its powerful impulses for revitalization in almost every field of knowledge, accessible to the art and culture of our present humanity in this form of words addressed to the listener.
The wonderful floods of color in the two domes of the burned Goetheanum are no more—Herostratus could triumph—but the thoughts and impulses will work with redoubled force from this conflagration. The sketches left behind with hints for the composition and color scheme, and the program pictures designed by Rudolf Steiner for the artistic performances at the Goetheanum, are now gradually appearing in beautiful color prints.When Rudolf Steiner demonstrated the creation of yellow and blue from light and darkness in a series of lessons on color theory in the summer of 1903, using a candle flame and a sheet of paper, his eyes shone as if in happy identification with the essence of what he was saying, and he said: “If I had ten thousand marks now to purchase the necessary instruments, I could prove to the world the truth of Goethe's theory of colors.”
At that time, the ten thousand marks were lacking, and the suggestions and guidelines given were taken up by Rudolf Steiner's students, who might succeed in providing the proof.
This desire of Rudolf Steiner — to take Goethe's theory of colors and Goethe's view of nature as the starting point for the foundation of a spiritual worldview — takes us back to the early 1880s. And between 1883 and 1897, his introductions to Goethe's scientific works appeared in Kürschner's edition.
The dogmatism of the scientific view and the hardening of philosophical thought meant that this call was not given sufficient attention. Rudolf Steiner had to take other paths to break the rigidity of today's thinking and free it from the constraints of rigid forms.
What he did can best be expressed in words spoken in one of his mystery dramas:
It became clear to him that spiritual science
could only be truly well-founded
if a sense of science and rigorous thinking
were freed from rigid formalism by artistic spirit
and strengthened internally
to become a true experience of being related to the world.
That was Rudolf Steiner's achievement. And artists can experience in his inspiring world fire how the dead comes back to life and how the germinating forces of all life stir with elemental power when we break through the rigid walls of our dead intellect that separate us from the creative word.
—Marie Steiner