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Building on the achievements of Goethe in his Theory of Colour, Rudolf Steiner shows how colour affects us in many areas of life, including our health, our sense of well-being, and our feelings. Distinguishing between 'image' and 'lustre' colours, he lays the foundation, based on his spiritual-scientific research, for a practical technique of working with colour that leads to a new direction in artistic creativity. His many penetrating remarks on some of the great painters of the past are supplemented by a deep concern to see a cultural, spiritual renewal emerge in the present time. 'If you realize', he states, 'that art always has a relation to the spirit, you will understand that both in creating and appreciating it, art is something through which one enters the spiritual world.' This volume is the most comprehensive compilation of Rudolf Steiner's insights into the nature of colour, painting and artistic creation. It is an invaluable source of reference and study not only for artists and therapists but for anyone interested in gaining an appreciation of art as a revelation of spiritual realities.

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 3, 1971

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About the author

Rudolf Steiner

4,374 books1,114 followers
Author also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...


Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions,  differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Jake Rueth.
32 reviews
October 23, 2018
I don’t know... I can’t honestly recommend this and I struggled with many of the concepts contained in this book. I was put off primarily by the frequent subjective rampages that really should have been edited out.

Its not all bad as I did utilize my highlighter on various passages in the first half of the book however the later half felt long winded, preachy, and dull.

This isn’t the first Steiner book I’ve read and I am still looking forward to reading his other works but I’m doing so with a little more caution.

Profile Image for Stephen Hawks.
44 reviews2 followers
February 23, 2020
This compilation of lectures is still atypical of the type of books written on color for the artist It starts with Goethe's experiential ideas on color and contrasts them with the more abstract and materialistic views of Newton. These lectures look at color as well as sound from the perspective of the spirit. Kandinsky and Pousette Dart were both influenced by Steiner's theories of color along with many other artists.
1 review
November 18, 2016
Perfect!

I highly recommend these lectures. If your at a point of spritual awakening, sit back and absorb this book. It will unlock your mind with the right focus. This was my first book regarding these topics, but i believe my interest has only began.
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