This book presents the first comprehensive study of the philosopher and art historian Edgar Wind's critique of modern art. The first student of Erwin Panofsky, and a close associate of Aby Warburg, Edgar Wind was unusual among the 'Warburgians' for his sustained interest in modern art, together with his support for contemporary artists. This culminated in his respected and influential book Art and Anarchy (1963), which seemed like a departure from his usual scholarly work on the iconography of Renaissance art. Based on extensive archival research and bringing to light previously unpublished lectures, Edgar Wind and Modern Art reveals the extent and seriousness of Wind's thinking about modern art, and how it was bound up with theories about art and knowledge that he had developed during the 1920s and 30s. Wind's ideas are placed in the context of a closely connected international cultural milieu consisting of some of the leading artists and thinkers of the twentieth century. In particular, the book discusses in detail his friendships with three significant artists: Pavel Tchelitchew, Ben Shahn and R. B. Kitaj. In the process, the existence of an alternative to the prevailing formalist approach of Alfred Barr and Clement Greenberg to modern art, based on the enduring importance of the symbol, is revealed.

"This book presents the first comprehensive study of the philosopher and art historian Edgar Wind's critique of modern art. The first student of Erwin Panofsky, and a close associate of Aby Warburg, Edgar Wind was unusual among the 'Warburgians' for his sustained interest in modern art, together with his support for contemporary artists. This culminated in his respected and influential book Art and Anarchy (1963), which seemed like a departure from his usual scholarly work on the iconography of Renaissance art. Based on extensive archival research and bringing to light previously unpublished lectures, this book reveals the extent and seriousness of Wind's thinking about modern art, and how it was bound up with theories about art and knowledge that he had developed during the 1920s and 30s. Wind's ideas are placed in the context of a closely connected international cultural milieu consisting of some of the leading artists and thinkers of the Twentieth Century. In particular, the book discusses in detail his friendships with three significant artists: Pavel Tchelitchew, Ben Shahn and R. B. Kitaj. In the process, the existence of an alternative to the prevailing formalist approach of Alfred Barr and Clement Greenberg to modern art, based on the enduring importance of the symbol, is revealed"--

Will works of the imagination ever regain the power they once had to challenge and mould society and the individual? This was the question posed by Edgar Wind's influential Reith Lectures delivered in 1960 and later expanded into his book Art and Anarchy. The book examines the various forces that have fashioned the modern view of the art, from mechanization and fear of intellect to connoisseurship and--perhaps the fundamental weakness of our age--the dispassionate acceptance of art. In the course of his discussion, Wind surveyed a wide range of topics in the history of painting, literature, music, and the plastic arts from the Renaissance to modern times.

"Edgar Wind (1900-1971) was a cosmopolitan scholar who made important contributions to many disciplines, including philosophy, Renaissance art history and modern art criticism. Born in Berlin, Wind started his career in Hamburg as a research assistant in the library of cultural theorist Aby Warburg. During the rise of Nazism, Wind played a decisive role in moving Warburg's collection from Hamburg to London, where it became the core of the Warburg Institute, now part of the University of London. Wind's academic career took him to prestigious institutions across Europe and the United States, culminating in his appointment in 1955 as Oxford's first professor of art history. Wind was also a remarkable public intellectual; his 1960 Reith Lectures on BBC radio are one example of his oratorical brilliance. This book considers a crucial question: to understand the work of an art historian, how important is it to know their life story? In the case of Edgar Wind, biography and scholarly endeavour are intimately connected. His intellectual exchanges with leading art historians, philosophers and artists of his day were essential for his research. Moreover, his wife, Margaret Wind, was determined to establish an Edgar Wind Archive after his death. This book is the first comprehensive study in English of Wind's intellectual achievements"--

This book presents the first comprehensive study of the philosopher and art historian Edgar Wind's critique of modern art. The first student of Erwin Panofsky, and a close associate of Aby Warburg, Edgar Wind was unusual among the 'Warburgians' for his sustained interest in modern art, together with his support for contemporary artists. This culminated in his respected and influential book Art and Anarchy (1963), which seemed like a departure from his usual scholarly work on the iconography of Renaissance art. Based on extensive archival research and bringing to light previously unpublished lectures, Edgar Wind and Modern Art reveals the extent and seriousness of Wind's thinking about modern art, and how it was bound up with theories about art and knowledge that he had developed during the 1920s and 30s. Wind's ideas are placed in the context of a closely connected international cultural milieu consisting of some of the leading artists and thinkers of the twentieth century. In particular, the book discusses in detail his friendships with three significant artists: Pavel Tchelitchew, Ben Shahn and R. B. Kitaj. In the process, the existence of an alternative to the prevailing formalist approach of Alfred Barr and Clement Greenberg to modern art, based on the enduring importance of the symbol, is revealed.

This is the second volume of Edgar Wind's selected papers, a companion to The Elegance of Symbols. Of all the scholars associated with the early development of the Warbur Institute Edgar Wind was the first to apply different theoretical principles to the study of English Art, above all in his early study of English portraiture, now a classic art history text. As the seminal essay, it gives title to the present volume, and is here translated into English for the first time. In this essay, which marked a change of direction in Wind's own development, he argues that two opposing styles of portraiture, exemplified in the art of Gainsborough and Reynolds, can be related to the different notions of humanity subscribed to by the philosophers David Hume and James Beattie. Other important studies, also reprinted here, make this volume an excellent resource to Wind's tremendous contributions to art history.