Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Oxford Brookes University
World spirit, where are you?! Rudolf Steiner and the emergence of the modern age
This essay contextualizes Steiner’s work within late C19th and early C20th European culture and what could be termed an emerging global consciousness demonstrating how Steiner’s questions and methods reflect key concerns of their time. Drawing on more than three decades of extensive research into Steiner’s work, investigation of contemporaries including Andrei Belyi, and the editing of Steiner’s collected works, this essay is but one example of the work Kugler has done to unearth much buried material and make many new connections.
The multi-layered nature of the exhibition to which this essay is an introduction has been made possible through Kugler’s approach to archiving, his encyclopaedic overview, and his re-contextualising editorial commentaries. So although designated as scientific advisor and not curator of this exhibition, the exhibition would not have been possible if Kugler – initially on his own and later as part of a twelve-person team - had not gathered, catalogued and cross referenced all of the material in ways that allowed for new conclusions. Much of this has to do with creating new art-world contexts for its discussion and dissemination.
The insights that Kugler has had in developing the archive and being one of Steiner’s key editors and commentators, has been confirmed in the positive responses to the scientific advice he brought to the shaping and nature of the exhibition. The multidimensional look at Steiner that this exhibition and accompanying essay presents, reflect Kugler’s thorough approach to engaging with Steiner’s work looking at the context in which Steiner’s work developed. Both this exhibition, the recent major exhibit of Steiner’s blackboards at the Venice biennale and the extensive international exhibitions that Kugler has curated for over 2 decades, are embodiments of the unorthodox contextualising and recontextualing of Steiner’s work by Kugler that has given rise to so much new material.
