Theosophy and Art
by
Prof. John Algeo
One of the most noteworthy instances of influence by theosophical thought on modern culture is the extent to which the founders of modern art, and especially nonrepresentational or abstract art, were consciously affected by the teachings of the Society[iii]. A major exhibit showing the influence of theosophical and allied ideas on modern art, The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, was presented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague during 1986-87.[iv]
Artists who were influenced by theosophical and allied ideas include Jean Arp, Giacomo Balla, Joseph Beuys, Emil Bisttram, Serge Charchoune, Jean Delville, Theo van Doesburg, Arthur Dove, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Gauguin, Lawren Harris, Marsden Hartley, Jacoba van Heemskerck, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Yves Klein, Hilma af Klint, Franz Kupka, Kazimir Malevich, Brice Marden, Mikhail Matiushin, Georg Muche, Georgia O’Keeffe, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Jackson Pollock, Richard Pousette-Dart, Paul Ranson, Odilon Redon, Paul Serusier, and Jan Toorop.
Most significant perhaps are two giants of modern art, Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. Kandinsky’s manifesto, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, is heavily indepted to H. P. Blavatsky and Theosophy, and his early efforts to free himself from the representational mode of painting were deeply influenced by the book Thought Forms by Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater. Piet Mondrian was a long-time member of the Theosophical Society, and the whole body of his work is an effort to express certain fundamental theosophical concepts relating to the polarity of spirit and matter and the threefold nature of the ultimate world-stuff. (For more on these and other artists, see also The Spiritual Image in Modern Art, compiled by Kathleen J. Regier, Quest Books, 1987.)
In addition to the masters of abstract art, a number of symbolic painters have expressed theosophical themes. Noteworthy among them is Nicholas Roerich. The symbolic school of painters is no longer highly regarded by many art critics, and Roerich has shared their general decline in artistic reputation. However, Roerich’s paintings are prime examples of their genre and form a coherent whole with his other work, specifically his writings. Roerich was a mystic and was prescient, if not clairvoyant. His work, which has been praised for “an intense feeling for the epic dimensions and mystery of nature,” is a visual statement of some basic theosophical ideas.
The artist and architect Claude Bragdon, long-time and active member of the Theosophical Society, was interested in a variety of theosophically related subjects, including speculation on the nature of the fourth dimension. His analytical writings and visual productions became an influence in modern art.[v]
NOTES
[iii] That influence has been no secret. It has been dealt with, for example, by Sixten Ringbom, “Art in ‘The Epoch of the Great Spiritual’: Occult Elements in the Early Theory of Abstract Painting,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 29 (1966): 386-418 and The Sounding Cosmos, Acta Academiae Aboensis, ser. A, 38 Abo, Finland: Abo Academy, 1970); Gerrit Munnik, “The Influence of H. P. Blavatsky on Modern Art,” In H. P. Blavatsky and “The Secret Doctrine”, ed. Virginia Hanson (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1971); an exhibition and catalog, Art of the Invisible (Jarrow: Bede Gallery, 1977); and Rose-Carol Washton Long, Kandinsky: The Development of an Abstract Style (Oxford: Clarendon, 1980).
[iv] The catalog of the exhibition is a collection of essays on aspects of the esoteric in modern art (New York: Abbeville, 1986).
[v] Linda Dalrymple Henderson, The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1983).
The segment above was taken from the main article: http://www.austheos.org.au/tsia-article-theosophy-and-the-zeitgeist.html