Architecture and Theosophy. KPC De Bazel and JLM Lauweriks
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Syracuse University SURFACE Full list of publications from School of Architecture School of Architecture 1999 Architecture and Theosophy. KPC de Bazel and JLM Lauweriks Susan R. Henderson [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/arc Part of the Architectural History and Criticism Commons, and the Modern Art and Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Henderson, Susan R., "Architecture and Theosophy. KPC de Bazel and JLM Lauweriks" (1999). Full list of publications from School of Architecture. 231. https://surface.syr.edu/arc/231 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Architecture at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Full list of publications from School of Architecture by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Architecture and Theosophy: An Introduction Susan R. Henderson Syracuse University I hope that I will not risk paradox if I now accuse has sparked new studies, notably the 1995 exhibition at the Bauhaus masters—not of an excessive rational- the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt called Okkultismus und ism—but rather of not stating the religious, or 5 quasi-religious postulates for what they were doing; Avantgarde Von Munch bis Mondrian, 1900-1915. This or at any rate of not stating them explicitly. Only issue of Architronic is devoted to one aspect of this Itten and Klee have a clean record in this respect: history, the relationship between Theosophy and architec- and they were the two Bauhaus masters who ture from the turn of the century through the 1930s.6 realised most clearly the danger of van Doesburg’s excessive devotion to modernity; to interpreting While each essay touches on a different aspect of this every technological advance as a spiritual leap for- history, the overall intention is to indicate why Theosophy ward. rang such a strong chord among the architects of the peri- od. Indeed, the striking thing about Theosophy is how 1 Joseph Rykwert seamlessly an esoteric belief system based in the study of spiritual phenomena intersected with both expressionistic and Neues Bauen ideas. Ultimately, this influence As Rykwert observed in 1968, a strong current of occult extended beyond the work of Theosophists through the and mystical thought, Gustav Pehnt’s “non-religious reli- embrace of esoteric ideas by a broader cohort of contem- giousness,” permeated much of modernist discourse at the porary architects: witness the interest of Peter Behrens turn of the century.2 The Expressionists, with whom we and H.P. Berlage in Theosophically based, geometrical generally associate such esoteric predelictions, produced analyses, studies each employed when devising a system- works ranging from the crystalline utopias of Taut and atic method of design.7 Scheerbart, to the exotic practices of Johannes Itten in theVorkurs of the Bauhaus, to dark, racial and nationalist theories reflected in the works of Bernhard Hoetger.3 Esotericism also formed a strain within the ranks of the Along with my co-authors avant garde. Malevich, Mondrian, van Doesburg, and El Lissitzky were some of those who found the key to an I would like to dedicate this issue of Architronic to the memory of Werner Seligmann alternative modernity in esoteric thought.4 Their mani- festos and declarations, colored by the pursuit of the non- who died this past fall. objective world, proclaimed the arrival of Vorticism, While Professor Seligmann will be Suprematism, Neo-Plasticism, Futurism and remembered as a spirited partisan Elementarism in turn. In the ethereal abstractions of of the modern movement, Proun, or the absolutism of De Stijl one discovers the his engagement with its history search for nameless essences as much as the reflection of went beyond the doctrinaire and scientific truths. This strain reverberated throughout the admitted the many contradictions and modern period. In architecture, it was echoed in the mys- diverse strains that ultimately comprised tique of geometry as espoused first by Berlage and the modern. For my own part, I benefited Behrens, then by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe as from the interest and support of a colleague they sought to elevate their architectural philosophies who generously shared his interest beyond rank functionalism through the validating exposi- tory power of esoteric ideas. in the work of Lauweriks and Berlage. He will be sorely missed. The growing interest in this aspect of early modernism V7n2: Introduction, Page 2 Theosophy offered the consolation of faith within the The chronicle of the Theosophical Society generally framework of a positivistic optimism. It proved to be a begins in September 1875 when a freemason named potent formula. George Felt read his paper, “The Lost Canon of Proportion of the Egyptians,” at the New York salon of By moving beyond the constraints of history and posi- the Russian émigrée and seer, Madame H. P. Blavatsky.8 tivism Theosophy also offered an alternative to the lived In the course of the evening, Blavatsky’s colleague, the experience of modernity. While this was achieved via a American Colonel Henry S. Olcott, asked if it would not retreat of sorts, it nevertheless constituted a rejection of be a good idea to form a society to pursue such studies the dominat forms of middle class culture and power, and further. Olcott proposed they found a society that would thus contributed to the modernist framework within which “diffuse information concerning those secret laws of both radically regressive and progressive departures soon Nature which were so familiar to the Chaldeans and emerged. Egyptians, but are totally unknown by our modern world The Netherlands was home to a particularly active chapter of science.” This often-recounted incident indicates the of the Theosophical Society. From the 1890s through the two facets that made Theosophy of interest to so many 1920s, its membership included a number of important artists. First, it offered a way of being and understanding artists and designers. Two key figures were the architects invulnerable to an increasingly secular world; second, it K.P.C. de Bazel and J.L.M. Lauweriks. Both have a renewed an ideal of beauty vested in forces beyond the rather vague presence in most architectural canons. De mundane, in a sacred ideal of Nature. Bazel had an influential career as an architect, but his work was hampered by chronic illness. His partner In one of her more concise explanations, Blavatsky Lauweriks assumed a more active role as teacher and the- defined Theosophy as the search for “the anciently uni- orist as de Bazel’s health declined. The two influenced a versal Wisdom-Religion.” Her fundamental proposition surprising array of architects in the years just preceding was that all living beings share in one larger reality, a the First World War. In the opening article, I write about reality that is purposeful and ordered. It was a conceptu- their work with reference to debates in Amersterdam, and alization that enabled her to accommodate the world’s Lauweriks's importance as a teacher at the Düsseldorf myriad belief systems within a single universalistic ideal. Academy and as an architect at Hagen in the Ruhr Valley. Theosophy reached beyond the Judeo-Christian tradition to find spiritual solace in religions as yet untouched by The next two articles articulate the divergent paths that modernity. The embrace of a bewildering and often con- Theosphical endeavor established in the 1920s. After the tradictory array of sacred traditions reflected Blavatsky’s revolutionary moment had passed, the split within the belief that each derived its validity from belonging to one modern movement between social reform and and artistic central and greater Truth. Much of Theosophy’s appeal individualism effected the work of the Theosophists. By lay in this inclusive principle: it reconciled East and this time Theosophical undertakings had settled into a West and readmitted the relevancy of spirituality and the more domestic phase. Adherents employed their philoso- irrational to modern life. phy as an ideal within an existing construct, less con- cerned perhaps with defining eternal truth as facilitating Theosophy brought these diverse creeds into accord at the its perception. Theosophists might interpret Social time of a church weakened by the explanatory power of Democracy, for example, as the societal expression of the science. Under Blavatsky’s tutelage Theosophy absorbed principle of ”unity in being.” The Society’s work had scientific knowledge by consecrating it to the larger pur- already earned Theosophists a reputation as humanists suit of esoteric study.9 For her the great enemy was and environmental advocates. In Ken Lambla’s piece we Darwin. By the dawn of the new century the danger see these communal and quotidian concerns reflected in came from the invasive reach of technology and rational- the work of Michiel Brinkman at the Spangen housing ization into the province of everyday life with a subse- settlement, Justus van Effenstraat, as Brinkmann attempt- quent diminution of custom, religion and experience as ed a Theosophical expression of the reform ideal. valid sources of knowledge.10 In turning the tables and “using” science in its recuperation of the spiritual, In contrast, Graham Livesey pursues the tendency of V7n2: Introduction, Page 3 Theosophy towards contemplative abstraction in his arti- ers as a spiritualist, and that those who attended her salon cle on the house built by L.C.van der Vlugt for the represented an array of New York society fascinated with important architectural patron C.H. van der Leeuw. the occult. Madame Blavatsky was as much the occasion While both essays deal with architects whose work we for, as the hostess of the salon: her guests looked forward think of as exemplifying the early modern period, each to the séances that often ended the evenings, when demonstrates how thoroughly different facets of mod- Blavatsky produced “phenomena” usually consisting of ernism evolved under the philosophical aegis of strange sounds and rappings.