Edgar Wind and Modern Art

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 Based on extensive archival research and bringing to light previously unpublished lectures, Edgar Wind and Modern Art reveals the extent and seriousness of Wind's thinking about modern art, and how it was bound up with theories about art and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.

Ben Thomas

List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgements
1. In Defence of Marginal AnarchyEdgar Wind (1900-1971)
2. Art and AnarchyThe Polarity of the SymbolHoly FearExperiment and Metaphysics
3. The Tradition of Symbols in Modern ArtThe Heritage of BaudelaireHistory of the MonsterPicasso and the Atavism of the MaskReligious and Scientific Fallacies - 'Our Present Discontents'
4. 'Cher Magus' - Pavel TchelitchewCathedrals of Art'You really are a magician.'The Feast of the GodsMonstrous PhenomenaMethod and Microcosm in Leonardo da VinciTchelitchew and Leonardo
5. 'The Muses' sterner laws' - W. H. Auden and Ben ShahnThe IrresponsiblesThe Critical Nature of a Work of ArtMasterpieces of the Twentieth CenturyKlee and CandideSeven Moral PaintingsArt and MoralsThe Truest Poetry is the Most FeigningThe Shape of Content
6. 'Certain Forms of Association Neglected Before' - R. B. KitajThe Fallacy of Pure ArtThe Book as SymbolRosa Luxemburg as PathosformelWarburg as Maenad - the reconciliation of oppositesIf Not, Not
Conclusion
Select Bibliography
Index