54. Eurythmy Performance

For a time, Impressionism tried to do this. In the field of painting, it was not at all able to achieve appropriate forms of artistic expression. As expressionism, it then tried to grasp the other side of avoiding the ideal by simply trying to bring soul experiences that come into their own in a kind of powerfully visionary form in man, but which do not come up to the clear thought that guides everything artistic, by trying to bring such visionary artistic experiences into forms and colors. Those who are easily inclined to philistinism cannot appreciate this beginning. They see only something in what is being attempted, to hold on to inner experiences through colors and forms, and then they say: We cannot distinguish whether it is a matter of hung-out laundry or a ship's sail or something of that sort. The philistine mind refuses to admit that this is not the point. The point is not that you simply hang something on the wall that reflects an inner experience; but as I said, artistic means of expression were not yet available. Therefore, even when one approaches these things with all good will, one is often compelled to say, especially in the face of these attempts at painting today: Yes, it is based on something visionary, it is an illusion, it is an expression, but it is not yet a healthy expression, it is not yet that which the healthy soul can truly experience.