ARVIA MACKAYE EGE
Through the Eges: the Art of Arvia
February 14 - March 2, 2025
This exhibition showcases the diverse artwork of Arvia MacKaye Ege (1902-1989), a pioneering figure in anthroposophy in America. Known as a painter, sculptor, and poet, Arvia was a cultural light bearer of the highest order.
Born on February 14th of 1902 into the family of American dramatist Percy MacKaye, she and her immediate family lived a bohemian life, befriended by the likes of Robert Frost, Kahlil Gibran, Isadora Duncan, and Scott Pyle. Destiny took her to the Goetheanum as a young woman, where she attended lectures by Rudolf Steiner and the Christmas Foundation meeting of 1923. During these times she was privileged to have had private meetings with Steiner, receiving counsel on the direction of both her artistic and meditative work. As a Waldorf School art and handwork teacher, she helped found both the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City and the Hawthorne Valley School in Harlemville, NY.
From early sketches to mature works in painting, drawing, and sculpture, this mini retrospective offers a rare opportunity to explore Arvia's creative legacy. Her artistic approach was filled with idealism, personal striving, and transparency for spiritual realities. What Arvia gained from anthroposophy and the guidance of Rudolf Steiner was a new aesthetic and themes for the dawn of the new age of consciousness in which we live, as well as artistic techniques for bringing them to expression. It is out of this life long mission that she spearheaded annual ‘Artistic Methods Workshops’ in Harlemville for a span of 10 years in the 1970s and 80s.
Many thanks to Arvia’s nephew, John Barnes, for having preserved the drawings, paintings, and sculptures she left behind and for his openness to having them exhibited at Lightforms, 36 years after her passing. Thank you also to sculptor Patrick Stolfo for facilitating this!
Special Events
Friday, February 14 at 6pm – opening with talk by Patrick Stolfo
Saturday, February 22 at 3pm – reading of Arvia's poetry by Laurie Portocarrero
Saturday, March 1 at 3pm – Grimm’s Fairy Tale told by artist Anna Speer from Berlin