Alena has color studying and researching color in art for more than fifteen years since 2008. She took education (additional) from the teacher who continued the tradition of color studying created by the well-known founder of the method from Austria. Further about this person and the school of art that was a game-changer in the European art scene in twenty century. 

Rudolf Steiner was born in 1861  and was an Austrian philosopher, esoteric thinker, social reformer, and the founder of anthroposophy were a spiritual worldview that integrates science, art, and esotericism.

He is also known for founding Waldorf schools, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine, and eurythmy were a form of movement art with some architectural projects, including the Goetheanum. 

Steiner was deeply influenced by Goethe’s holistic approach to science and art in Dornach.

Dornach in Switzerland is a small town near Basel. It became the center of the anthroposophical movement because Steiner moved there in the 1910s with a group of followers. Why did he choose Dornach? Because neutral Switzerland provided stability during and also became a creative and spiritual hub for architecture, art, and performance and community members from many countries came to help build the Goetheanum.

The Goetheanum is the centrepiece of the anthroposophical movement. It is a major building in Dornach, designed by Steiner and there were two of them: 

First Goetheanum (1913 – 22) was built almost entirely out of wood, with two large interlocking domes in highly experimental architecture with flowing, organic forms, and was burned down in 1922 (one of the most important lost buildings of XX century art and architecture).

Second Goetheanum (1924 – 28) was built in reinforced concrete and was much larger and more monumental with features sculptural forms without right angles – everything feels “alive” and shaped by movement. 

It was used for performing arts like eurythmy, drama, music, conferences, and research; the headquarters of the anthroposophical society and art exhibitions. Also, the building remains a UNESCO-listed modernist architectural landmark.

Goetheanum is special because it’s unique and combines spiritual philosophy, experimental architecture, art, performance, and education; community life and cultural activity. Many architects (including some early modernists) were influenced by Steiner’s biomorphic forms.

Rudolf Steiner’s influence on art is much bigger than most people realise. He wasn’t just a philosopher – he was a visionary who reshaped modern art, architecture, theatre, and even color theory.

Steiner’s architectural and sculptural ideas, like flowing shapes, no right angles, forms that seem alive, were directly influenced by early modernist and later organic architecture.

Artists and architects inspired by Steiner include Le Corbusier, Hans Scharoun (organic architecture), Frei Otto, Imre Makovecz, and well-known Joseph Beuys (openly referenced Steiner in his work).

Joseph Beuys was the most important “Steiner-influenced” artist who explicitly incorporated Steiner’s ideas into social sculpture, expanded concept of art, the role of creativity in healing society, and the idea that every human is an artist. Beuys used felt, fat, beeswax, and other materials symbolically – often echoing Steiner’s thinking about warmth, metamorphosis, and life processes.

Steiner developed a unique spiritual color theory influenced by Goethe, where the color is not just pigment, but an experience of inner movement

Steiner treated buildings as living organisms: The Goetheanum (1st and 2nd) became a model for the organic architecture, sculptural concrete, free-form interiors, and expressive structural surfaces.

Steiner revolutionised theatres’ stage design with colored light used emotionally and spiritually, the architecture of the theatre integrated with performance, and Eurythmy of course. It is a new art form of movement where sound becomes gesture. His theatrical experiments influenced avant-garde performance art and later movement arts.

In anthroposophical art movements, he didn’t want art to be illustrations of spirituality, but he wanted artists to see reality differently. This led to entire schools of art like anthroposophical painting (Wandtafelmalerei), sculptural work inspired by the Representative of Humanity and color therapy and painting therapy; many artists work in holistic, spiritual, or nature-based art referencing Steiner’s ideas even indirectly.

Steiner made art bigger, not just about objects or aesthetics, but about human development, perception, and society. 

He died in Dornach in 1925.

Author: Sasha Horbatiuk, art manager