Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

hand by contemporary discoveries in science and on the other hand by theoccult. The Stieglitz circle regularly discussed such scientific developmentsas Einstein’s theory of relativity showing the interdependence of matter andenergy, the concept of nature as permeated by electromagnetic “force fields,”and related phenomena such as x-rays and radio waves. Dove and someother artists linked these ideas to interests in the conceptions and practicesof Theosophy, Vedanta, the Kabbalah, and other occult philosophies, withDove claiming to himself possess a degree of clairvoyance. The TheosophicalSociety, for example, taught that the universe was a continuous medium ofenergy, mind and matter both being different levels of vibrations, and evenprovided colored paintings of the clairvoyant appearance of illustrative“thought forms.”However, Dove was unique in transposing these ideas into the contextof landscape, although he was perhaps somewhat influenced in thisdirection by the writings and paintings of Vasily Kandinsky in Germany.Dove explained in interviewsalong with his firstexhibition in 1912 that hiswork also was based on themathematical and geometriclaws he “sensed” withinnature (later expanded toinclude projective geometry).Use of more or lessgeometrical shapes providedhim a certain structuralorder in the realm of nonrepresentationalart, but healso colored and composedthem to suggest nature’sorder. In a pastel such asNature Symbolized No. 2, of1911 (also titled Wind on aHillside, after its immediateinspiration; see Figure 13),it could be said that Doveboth geometricized natureand naturalized geometry.He typically used a geometryof curves that related toFigure 13. Arthur Dove. Nature Symbolized No. 2 (orWind on a Hillside). 1911. Pastel on papermounted on plywood. Art Institute of Chicago120