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Gerard Wagner
Exhibition Cracow 2006
On the 3rd
August 2006 at the Palac Sztuki (Palace for Art) in Cracow, Poland,
an exhibition of Gerard Wagner’s paintings was opened in a friendly
mood with great style and ceremony! 100+ people attended, including
members of the Anthroposophical Society in Poland, friends from
Europe and others visitors. Elisabeth Wagner was kept busy all
evening signing catalogues which are given away at the vernissage
according to polish tradition!
Diane Roman
from Texas, USA, who has just completed her painting training here
in Dornach, was instrumental in initiating and organizing this
special event. When in Cracow last year, she went to the Art Palace
armed with a catalogue of Gerard Wagner’s 1997 show at the
Hermitage, St Petersburg and asked to speak to the director. He
happened to be there and in a short time had agreed to put on the
exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of Gerard
Wagner’s birth. It just shows what turning up in person can
do!
The Palak
Sztuki is owned by the Society of the Friends of Fine Arts in
Cracow.
As readers
may like to know something about this interesting building and what
it represents, I enclose an excerpt from the introduction printed
in the catalogue, by the President of the Society, Mr Zbigniew
Kazimierz Witek:
“The
Palace, intended to be the seat of the Society of the Friends of
Fine Arts, was designed as a place of the cult of art – a temple of
art. Its façade is decorated with a monumental portal. A wide
ornamental border designed by Jacek Malczewski runs along its
walls. The border presents a procession of figures led by a
victorious and a defeated Pegasus, which stands for lucky or
unsuccessful artists respectively.
The Palace
was constructed within a few months at the turn of the
19th century. Its style is a combination of Classicism
and Art Nouveau. It is an example of a successful alliance of
architecture and sculpture, a harmonious result of cooperation
between artists representing different artistic
disciplines.
The most
outstanding Polish artists including Janek Malczewski, the
Czaijowski brothers and Wlodzimierz Tetmajer decorated the Palace.
The Society of Polish Artists “ Sztuka”, which was defined as “ the
aristocracy of Polish art”, used to hold its exhibitions on the
premises of the Palace. Their high artistic level and value
strengthened the prestige of the Society and added grandeur to its
overall objective, namely “ to support and encourage artists to
make even greater progress and to educate audience how to
appreciate true art”.
In the
Palace many works of famous and acclaimed foreign artists have been
exhibited. In August and September 2006 we will present an
exhibition of more than 130 paintings of the excellent artist
Gerard Wagner from Switzerland.
I thank Mrs
Elisabeth Wagner for lending her husband’s paintings and
biographical documents as well as for her help in organizing this
exciting and innovative artist’s exhibition for the first time in
Poland.”
The Palace
of Art holds a central position in Cracow’s old town and stands on
the edge of the narrow park created on the site of the old town
wall. The path through the park under the refreshing shade of trees
encircles the old town and leads the visitor effortlessly to the
right places! Passing the ancient university with its
impressive courtyard - Copernicus was a student there - reminds one
of the fact that Cracow was a centre of learning. Many important
early developments within the fields of medicine and other natural
sciences had their birth here. Churches too of course, and many
other historical places of interest stand near the edge of the
park.
It seems
significant that Gerard Wagner’s work, developed out of Rudolf
Steiner’s ‘seeds’ for a new art of painting, should be shown in a
country whose destiny is deeply bound up with the development of
the consciousness soul.
The
Paintings
The visitor
enters the large gallery and is met by 50 magnificent examples of
the painter’s early period, ca.1950-1956! The long wall radiates
deep vibrant colours and glowing darknesses. The combination of
paintings are united in an overall mood of dramatic cosmic battle,
of trials and glories of initiation, of fights with the dragon, all
dominated by the great Baptism paintings of those early years. In
flaming reds and glorious yellows, the Baptist stands like a victor
of light over the dark tones of earth. In other examples, the
Baptism itself is almost hidden within deep dark chasms of brown
and black which receive a river of red flowing from the crosses of
the Crucifixion. Angels towering above in all colours appear as
great guardians of mystery happenings. Large altar paintings -
triptychs -on the 2 neighbouring walls add to the grandeur and
glory of the mood.
On the
opposite walls are 2 groups of paintings. Softer, subtle tones of
colour draw you in to these more intimate, smaller pictures from
the painter’s earliest period. Mother and Child and the Mother and
Child with John speak through their tender and loving gestures.
Perhaps more than any other theme, the Madonna and Child motif runs
through the whole of Gerard Wagner’s work like a kind of
leitmotiv.
These
paintings are complimented by the mood of mystery in other small
works which include the Raising of Lazurus and the Crucifixion.
The other
group of pictures is essentially made up of nature moods which are
relaxing and refreshing. The cool shining blues of Trees by
Waterfalls, and deer dancing in blue-green moonlight are
accompanied by delicate Madonna motifs; she appears “above the
lake” or “about the trees” in the heavens as Persephone the mother
of nature, interwoven with the creative power of the elements and
the plants and animals. Wandering and Resting Herds are united in
an animal group-soul of warm red angel clouds, and a charming early
picture of St George who rides triumphantly through the air with
his lance, on a violet blue horse!
Entering
the next gallery a feeling of lightness and joy greets the
visitor.
One meets
the Madonna motif again, but from later periods, and she is joined
by the Plant motif. What unites the two is a lovely series of
“plant metamorphosis” in which the rose transforms, in small steps,
into the image of the Mother and Child. The Secret of the Rose is
the title of the series and one feels enlivened and thrilled
watching the delicate steps of transformation. A doorway seems to
open leading the viewer into the realm of elemental chemistry and
magic. The effect of plant colours, used by the painter since the
70’s, adds to the sunny experience.
On another
wall are 5 paintings grouped together under the title “Birth of the
Light”.
Through
Madonnas, the Christ child’s birth, and a beautiful tree motif, one
flows with ease from one colour event to the next. Both the Madonna
motifs were painted in the 90’s and are good examples of the
developmental changes in the artist’s work right up to the 90’s.
The motif is now almost only colour. The form and motif have for
the most part vanished and changed into an astounding richness of
pure and mixed tones of colour held together in perfect balance on
the two dimensional plane.
On the
facing wall three “Seed” paintings also from the 90’s, almost sing
out with purity and radiance. The theme of the remaining wall is
the Secret of the Cross with some wonderful examples of the late
work.
The
“Metamorphosis” gallery has work from different periods. Early
examples of metamorphosis arising from research into two of Rudolf
Steiner’s watercolours, - Archetypal Plant and Archetypal Animal,
combine with beautiful paintings of individual plants from the 80’s
and 90’s. ‘Sketches’, showing stages in the build-up of plant
sequences from the painter’s middle period, give a taste of the
methodical way in which he worked and through which he was able to
gain knowledge of the relationship of colour and form.
The last
two smaller galleries show work exclusively from the 90’s. To find
a theme or to give these paintings names seems impossible. Colour
has became the theme and one can sense the awe inspiring
capacities achieved through 70+ years of dedication to the colour
and to Rudolf Steiner’s indications for the development of a new
style in art.
To do this
last period justice another show would need to happen in a large
space where only work from the 90’s could be shown.
Caroline
Chanter
(The
exhibition may be extended until the end of October.)
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