HName: Arnheim, Rudolf

DateBorn: 1904

Placeborn: Berlin

Datedied:

Placedied:

HDescrip: Philosopher and art theorist, used a psychology-of-art method for his art-historical studies.    Arnheim studied psychology in the 1920s at the University of Berlin (graduated 1928) with Gestalt-based faculty.  During that time, he also pursued his interests in the arts.  This led him to develop his theories of the primacy of perception in art appreciation, linking it with the heretofore separated function of mental cognition.  His investigations included music and film (he was one of the first to publish a book on the artistic aspects of the silent film in 1932).  In 1940 he immigrated to the United States where he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1942-43) , teaching at Sarah Lawrence (1943-68) and Harvard University (Carpenter Center of Visual Arts, 1968-74).  Methodologically, he was fascinated by the perceptual structures in appreciating art.  His investigations in the preliminary sketches for Picasso's Guernica, among other works, helped establish a revised view of art interpretation for many art historians.

HCountry:  Germany/United States

HBiography: KRG, 100; AmA&B.; Au&Wr; ConAu 1R; WrD 1976; KKMP, 74; Bazin 320; The Dictionary of Art 2:  476-7.  "A Maverick in Art History,"  The Split and the Structure: Twenty-Eight Essays.  Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1996, pp. 104-110. [methodological recollections].  "Visual Thinking:  On Rudolf Arnheim," [issue] Salmagundi 78-9 (Spring-Summer 1988):  43-143; Wendland, Ulrike. Biographisches Handbuch deutschsprachiger Kunsthistoriker im Exil: Leben und Werk der unter dem Nationalsozialismus verfolgten und vertriebenen Wissenschaftler. Munchen: Saur, 1999,  vol. 1, pp.  7-14.

HBibliography: Film als Kunst.  1932.  The Power of the Center:  A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts.  Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1982.  Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1954.  Dynamics of Architectural Form. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.  Toward a Psychology of Art: Collected Essays. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.  Visual Thinking. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.  Picasso's Guernica: The Genesis of a Painting. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.

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0.Metzler