From Colour to Form: A Glimpse into Gerard Wagner’s Approach to Rudolf Steiner’s Indications for Painting
Caroline Chanter SteinerBooks 2024
Reviewed by Torsten Steen
The first impression: a splendid illustrated book. A special focus on the series of exercises characteristic of Wagner is immediately apparent. The extensive text section is pleasant to read and can certainly be seen as a supplement and extension of the detailed biography of Gerard Wagner by Caroline Chanter. In this volume, we get to know Gerard Wagner from his approach as a painter and are invited, as it were, to follow him into his studio and look over his shoulder as he paints. Chanter’s style remains pleasantly descriptive, factual and empathetic. In her selection of images and quotations, she demonstrates a broad and well-founded knowledge of the work. No generalisations are made, nor are instructions for the composition of the picture given, but simply examples of pictures, mainly metamorphoses, from Wagner’s work are presented and commented on with brief notes on how they were done. Whether this is comprehensible or not is fortunately left to the reader!
One is invited to actively feel one’s way into the sequence of images and to take part in the interaction of colours – to enter into a contemplative dialogue with the numerous, often previously unknown series of pictures and discover them for yourself. Wagner’s highly perceptive, exploratory way of dealing with colour is made impressively clear by the pictorial examples and underlined by carefully selected texts by Wagner himself. I see this as a particular merit of this book.
Caroline Chanter SteinerBooks 2024
Reviewed by Torsten Steen
The first impression: a splendid illustrated book. A special focus on the series of exercises characteristic of Wagner is immediately apparent. The extensive text section is pleasant to read and can certainly be seen as a supplement and extension of the detailed biography of Gerard Wagner by Caroline Chanter. In this volume, we get to know Gerard Wagner from his approach as a painter and are invited, as it were, to follow him into his studio and look over his shoulder as he paints. Chanter’s style remains pleasantly descriptive, factual and empathetic. In her selection of images and quotations, she demonstrates a broad and well-founded knowledge of the work. No generalisations are made, nor are instructions for the composition of the picture given, but simply examples of pictures, mainly metamorphoses, from Wagner’s work are presented and commented on with brief notes on how they were done. Whether this is comprehensible or not is fortunately left to the reader!
One is invited to actively feel one’s way into the sequence of images and to take part in the interaction of colours – to enter into a contemplative dialogue with the numerous, often previously unknown series of pictures and discover them for yourself. Wagner’s highly perceptive, exploratory way of dealing with colour is made impressively clear by the pictorial examples and underlined by carefully selected texts by Wagner himself. I see this as a particular merit of this book.
A path becomes visible that is oriented to Rudolf Steiner’s training motifs; quite incidentally, although the book is actually about Gerard Wagner, one also learns about essential aspects of Steiner’s painting indications. This gives the book a special value. In the second part of the book, which deals in depth with Wagner’s method, Wagner describes the composition of a Steiner motif using detailed text. Here the special approach, which is based strictly on a sense of balance embodied in the waking experience of colour, becomes particularly clear. This approach is also set in relation to the Goetheanum building impulse, which has the human being as its basic measuring instrument. How this is done makes clear an essential aspect of the anthroposophical art impulse which is another significant achievement of the book. One is left somewhat alone with Albert Steffen’s reviews of Steiner’s colour lectures in the appendix. You have to look for the references to Wagner’s pictures on your own. Here, for example, the exercises of the colour gestures catch the eye, or Steiner's depiction of animals and plants can be followed by images of the same.
Overall, the book is a valuable and essential addition to the published catalogues of Wagner's paintings and the detailed biography of Gerard Wagner by Caroline Chanter titled A LIFE WITH COLOUR.
Below are some examples of Wagner's metamorphic paintings and the painting titled "Youth" which are contained in this wonderful new book.
Future Blogs will contain more of the topics devoted to metamorphosis in the painting process.
Overall, the book is a valuable and essential addition to the published catalogues of Wagner's paintings and the detailed biography of Gerard Wagner by Caroline Chanter titled A LIFE WITH COLOUR.
Below are some examples of Wagner's metamorphic paintings and the painting titled "Youth" which are contained in this wonderful new book.
Future Blogs will contain more of the topics devoted to metamorphosis in the painting process.
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