The Death and Life of the Total Work of Art – Henry van de Velde and the Legacy of a Modern Concept

the court city. The establishment of the Nietzsche Archive related to a larger project
to create a “New Weimar” that would build on Weimar classicism. 1 Through
the contributions of Goethe and Schiller, Weimar’s golden age had been devoted
above all to literature and drama. Franz Liszt’s arrival in 1848 marked the second
period of cultural greatness and demonstrated the vitality of music. The New Weimar
as Kessler conceived it would foreground the visual arts, which he conceived
in relationship to a Gesamtkunstwerk. Weimar would supersede Richard Wagner’s
Bayreuth as a site of cultural and national regeneration, Kessler reasoned. Upon
arriving in Weimar, van de Velde immediately set to work on his twofold mission
by founding an Applied Arts Seminar where he could work closely with the
Grand Duchy’s manufacturers. He also renovated the Nietzsche Archive building
to create spaces for a library and a salon devoted to poetry readings and musical
performances. 2
However distinct van de Velde’s practical and aesthetic spheres of action might
seem, they were united by Nietzsche’s idea of Lebenskunst, which Jugendstil artists
defined as a kind of “self-willing” or “self-constitution” that fuses science and art,
theoretical knowledge and embodied creation. 3 Nietzsche referred to the self as a
sculptor, craftsman, and productive form-giver. The self thus constituted is not essential
or fixed, but is always in the act of becoming. Nietzsche emphasized the importance
of experience and experiment and insisted on the value of education. One
must “learn life,” Nietzsche argued, as one “learns a handicraft,” through doing
and constant practice. Breaking down boundaries between art and life, Nietzsche’s
Lebenskunst takes a variety of forms ranging from body movements and dress to
everyday objects, according to Jugendstil artists. Whatever shape it takes, Lebenskunst’s
contribution to life is unwaveringly positive. Artists such as van de Velde
sought to realize Nietzsche’s dictum that “every art, every philosophy should be
seen as a remedy and a stimulant in the service of a growing, affirmative life.” 4
Whereas Nietzsche had defined Lebenskunst through his writings and musical
compositions, Kessler and van de Velde sought to complete what the philosopher
had left unfinished by lending Lebenskunst tangible, visual form through a series
of Gesamtkunstwerke that incorporated literature, music, and—most importantly
for Kessler and van de Velde—the visual arts. Hired by the Grand Duke in 1903 to
direct Weimar’s Grand Ducal Museum of Art and Applied Art, Kessler envisioned
coordinating the curricula of the Grand Duchy’s Arts Schools with museum exhibitions
and theater and musical performances to create a vibrant and living artistic
culture. To this end, he supported the Nietzsche Archive’s programming and publications
and sought to institute a summer theater festival. Van de Velde played
a leading role in all these endeavors, counseling Kessler on painting purchases,
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