The Aenigma Archive for Anthroposophical Art, Architecture and Design in Berlin (DE) opened in 2016 (Anthroposophy Worldwide 3/2016). Since then it has been entrusted with tens of thousands of works by anthroposophical artists. The Havelhöhe community hospital in Berlin (DE) is exhibiting pieces from the Archive on its premises.
Every handover is a small miracle: it encompasses the trust placed in the Archive, the picking up and, not least, the inspection and storage of the work. Each work provides insight into creative biographies and working contexts that are waiting to be made visible.
Most recently, the Archive received over a hundred works by the artist Maria Hiszpanska-Neumann (1917–1980) and a large altarpiece by Max Wolffhügel (1880–1963). A comparison between this painting and another altarpiece from 1937 by Margarita Voloshina (1882-1973), which is also held in the Archive, is interesting in that it illustrates how differently one and the same theme can be realized.
The art works entrusted to us are in very different states of preservation, with over half of the collection requiring conservational attention. And they need to be stored appropriately. The costs of all this by far exceed the funds available to us, since very few donations come with the funding required to give them the attention they need. The Archive takes up an area of 250 square metres in a building of the Berlin Kladow Waldorf School, which is very close to the Havelhöhe Hospital. The idea of a viewable ‘depot’ had to be deferred for reasons of space, due to the sheer number of art works we have received.
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Every handover is a small miracle: it encompasses the trust placed in the Archive, the picking up and, not least, the inspection and storage of the work. Each work provides insight into creative biographies and working contexts that are waiting to be made visible.
Most recently, the Archive received over a hundred works by the artist Maria Hiszpanska-Neumann (1917–1980) and a large altarpiece by Max Wolffhügel (1880–1963). A comparison between this painting and another altarpiece from 1937 by Margarita Voloshina (1882-1973), which is also held in the Archive, is interesting in that it illustrates how differently one and the same theme can be realized.
The art works entrusted to us are in very different states of preservation, with over half of the collection requiring conservational attention. And they need to be stored appropriately. The costs of all this by far exceed the funds available to us, since very few donations come with the funding required to give them the attention they need. The Archive takes up an area of 250 square metres in a building of the Berlin Kladow Waldorf School, which is very close to the Havelhöhe Hospital. The idea of a viewable ‘depot’ had to be deferred for reasons of space, due to the sheer number of art works we have received.
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