Rudolf Steiner (1861 – 1925) was one of the most influential and at the same time most controversial reformers of the 20th century. He founded the Waldorf schools, inspired artists such as Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky and Joseph Beuys and is considered to be one of the most important innovators of organic architecture. To mark the 150th anniversary of Steiner’s birth, the Vitra Design Museum presented the first major retrospective of his work.
Steiner created his main architectural work just 15 kilometers from the Vitra Design Museum in Dornach, Switzerland: the Goetheanum, built between 1924 and 1928. To this day, it is considered a milestone in architectural history – never before had concrete been used on such a sculptural scale. However, Steiner’s horizons went far beyond architecture and design. As a trained spiritual scientist, Steiner advocated a holistic view of humanity and conveyed the world view of anthroposophy, in which art, science and spirituality were to be combined, in over 5,000 lectures. Today, hundreds of clinics, banks, farms and Waldorf schools bear witness to how far Steiner’s ideas have spread. Many aspects of it have long since reached the center of our society – whether in organic cosmetics, increased environmental awareness or in products from biodynamic agriculture.
In order to document the diversity of Steiner’s work, the Vitra Design Museum brought together a wealth of exhibits. These included 45 pieces of furniture, 46 models, 18 sculptures, over 100 original drawings and plans, as well as dozens of other documents ranging from posters to letters to Steiner from Franz Kafka, Piet Mondrian and Else Lasker-Schüler. Early expressionist films and works by Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, Erich Mendelsohn, Bruno Taut and Frank Lloyd Wright illustrated the intensive interactions between Steiner and famous contemporaries. The connection between Steiner and today’s designers was also documented, for example with works by Olafur Eliasson, Konstantin Grcic and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec.
VTV Classics (r3): Rudolf Steiner: Alchemy of the Everyday / Vitra Design Museum (2011). October 14, 2011.
A panel discussion took place as part of the exhibition: Peter Sloterdijk in Conversation about Rudolf Steiner / Vitra Design Museum (2011) (XL).
