Abstraction and Empathy: A Contribution to the Psychology of Style - Softcover

Worringer, Wilhelm

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1614275874 ISBN 13: 9781614275879

Publisher: Martino Fine Books, 2014

Synopsis

2014 Reprint of 1953 New York Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In this text, Worringer identifies two opposing tendencies pervading the history of art from ancient times through the Enlightenment. He claims that in societies experiencing periods of anxiety and intense spirituality, such as those of ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages, artistic production tends toward a flat, crystalline "abstraction," while cultures that are oriented toward science and the physical world, like ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy, are dominated by more naturalistic, embodied styles, which he grouped under the term "empathy." As was traditional for art history at the time, Worringer's book remained firmly engaged with the past, ignoring contemporaneous artistic production. Yet in the wake of its publication-just one year after Pablo Picasso painted his masterpiece "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"-"Abstraction and Empathy" came to be seen as fundamental for understanding the rise of Expressionism and the role of abstraction in the early twentieth century.

About this title

Review

Worringer's little book is an enduring classic.--James Sloan Allen "Arts and Letters "

About the Author

Wilhelm Worringer (1881-1965) was an art historian who lectured and taught at the universities of Bern, Konigsberg, and Halle. Hilton Kramer is editor of The New Criterion.

Edition details

• Publisher: Martino Fine Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1614275874
• ISBN 13: 9781614275879
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 162