Tue, 18 Nov 2003

Searching for the “archetypal composition” in painting - Celebrating Lajos Boros’ 75th birthday

Wiesbaden, 18 November (NNA) – In honour of the painter Lajos Boros’ 75th birthday, a celebratory gathering was held last Saturday at Schloss Freudenberg, a renovated mansion and site of the ‘Freudenberg Experience Field’ devoted to the work of Hugo Kükelhaus and Rudolf Steiner. A small exhibition of paintings by Boros opened there at the same time.

Friends of Boros who spoke at the gathering placed him in the tradition of Kandinsky and Hölzel: “What these painters began, Boros has steadfastly continued in his work over many decades,” said Thomas Wildgruber. In almost monastic isolation and dedication, he went on, Boros had sought in his work for the principles of development and synthesis, for – as Goethe would put it – the basso continuo underlying and sustaining painting. Ursula Hausen, from Wiesbaden Christian Community, emphasised the “quality of pure thinking” in the works of Boros. “What emanates from his painting”, she said, “is something profoundly healing.”

Lajos Boros was born in 1928 to a Hungarian family in Transylvania, and studied art in Cluj. From 1965 he pursued the idea of an “archetypal composition” in painting, studying the techniques used in traditional icons. Following a period of official recognition, during which he was chairman of the Rumanian visual artists’ association, Boros suffered increasing discrimination as member of an ethnic minority in Rumania, and came under pressure from the state cultural bureaucracy due to his liberal stance within the association. In 1970, when participating in an exhibition in Wiesbaden, he sought asylum. However, he had to wait five years before he could bring his family there to live with him.

Boros initially earned his living as a factory worker, later becoming an art teacher in German secondary schools. In Wiesbaden he also encountered Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy, and discovered that his teacher and great inspiration, the painter Janos Matthis-Teutsch (1884-1960) – a member of the “Blaue Reiter” (Blue Rider) movement and the “Brücke” (Bridge) group of artists – had also been an anthroposophist. Speakers at the Wiesbaden gathering cited Matthis-Teutsch’s motto that “painting without inner principles creates restlessness of soul”.

Manfred Schneider thanked Lajos Boros on behalf of participants in his numerous art courses, held over the past few decades, where, among other things, he taught the principles of synthesis and construction discovered by him. “We owe him so much, as no doubt do many who haven’t even arrived on earth yet,” stressed Schneider. Members of the Berlin circle of friends donated funds that made possible the publication of an illustrated book on Lajos Boros in 1999. Now the same friends are considering ways in which his complete oeuvre, encompassing more than 600 paintings – currently stored in his Wiesbaden studio – could be presented to a wider public. “It really is high time to find a place where a larger-scale exhibition of his works could be held,” said Thomas Wildgruber.

The occasion of Lajos Boros’ 75th birthday was also celebrated in various anthroposophical journals. In “Das Goetheanum” for instance, Georg Kühlewind writes: “His pictures are colour compositions coalescing around a so-called archetypal form, which gradually simplifies in his work and dissolves, until it is only a veiled hint.” To immerse oneself in his paintings, says Kühlewind, is to follow a path of attentive seeing found in the Buddha’s contemplative gaze. In “Die Drei”, author Thomas Wildgruber takes a peek over the artist’s shoulder as he paints a water colour, giving us insights into the painting process and its intentions, which he sees as the seeds of a grammar and methodology of painting that could also be of potential use for art teaching in Waldorf schools.

ENDS

Item: N031118-02EN Date: 18 November 2003

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Members approve fusion plans for anthroposophical societies

Dornach, 18 November (NNA) – Members attending the extraordinary general meetings last weekend of the General Anthroposophical Society (GAS) and the recently reactivated General Anthroposophical Society (Christmas Conference) at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, have approved the plan to merge the GAS with the so-called Christmas Conference Society.

A clear majority of the almost 650 members present from all over the world had expressed their confidence in the executive councils of the two societies by a clear majority, the GAS said in a statement. The members of the GAS council also comprise the Christmas Conference Society council.

In the key vote approving the merger, 531 members voted in favour of the move with 91 against. The vote authorising the executive councils to decide on the most appropriate time for the fusion to take place – to take account of pending legal actions – was carried by 539 votes to 75.

“The meetings have shown that members want the anthroposophical society to have a clear constitution and identity,” the GAS said in its statement

Speaking on behalf of the executive councils, Paul Mackay said: “We are pleased with the outcome of the votes and the confidence of the members they express.

“Only a healthy constitutional basis can truly serve the future development of the Anthroposophical Society and make it relevant to a wider public,” he told NNA.

In remarks in advance of the extraordinary general meetings, Mackay stressed that the executive councils had wanted to hold the meetings now to give members “the opportunity to express their will with regard to our proposals as an executive council and if what we have proposed is really supported.”

The extraordinary general meetings were able to go ahead after a last-ditch procedural legal challenge by opponents of the fusion was rejected by the Dorneck-Thierstein municipal court. The substantive hearing challenging the fusion plans will take place early next year.

Commenting on the outcome of the weekend meetings, Robert Jan Kelder, representing the opposition group that took that action, promised further legal steps: “We are considering mounting a legal challenge to the decisions made last weekend.”

He added: “We are currently talking to lawyers about the precise grounds on which such an action could be undertaken.” One approach, he suggested, might be to assert moral rights as they relate to Rudolf Steiner.

“We claim that these constitutional plans are not in the best interests of anthroposophists and do not follow the intentions of Rudolf Steiner,” he said.

Another claim made by opponents of recent constitutional developments is that the majority of members worldwide were given insufficient notice of meetings if at all. “A society has been dissolved without the majority of members being notified of this. This will probably be a major point also in the forthcoming legal actions,” Kelder said.

The dispute over the fusion plans has been ongoing since March 2002, when the council of the General Anthroposophical Society announced its far-reaching constitutional plans to restructure the society with the intention of resolving long-standing issues connected with its disputed constitutional status and making its legal position more transparent.

The constitutional debate revolves around the issue whether or not the society re-founded by Rudolf Steiner as the General Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas conference of 1923 to be the vehicle for the spiritual tasks of anthroposophy – the Christmas Conference Society – still legally exists or whether it disappeared through merger with the original, administrative Johannes Building Association which was also renamed the General Anthroposophical Society on 8 February 1925.

ENDS

Item: N031118-01EN Date: 18 November 2003

Copyright 2003 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See http://www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: http://www.nna-news.org/content/