Wilhelm Worringer

Josh Dittrich (University of Toronto)

Ed. by Jill E. Twark, East Carolina University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

Born 13 Jan 1881
Died 29 Mar 1965
Activity 1901-1965

Places

Born in Germany
Active in Germany

Activities

Primary

Art Theorist/ Historian/ Critic
Cultural Theorist/ Critic

Resources

Worringer's Works

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Wilhelm Worringer (1881-1965) was a German art historian who exerted a subtle but enduring influence both in and beyond his academic field. His work as an art critic was crucial to the aesthetic development of German Expressionism and European modernism, and his first and most famous book,

Abstraktion und Einfühlung

(1907;

Abstraction and Empathy: A Contribution to the Psychology of Style

, 1908) – besides being a perennial reference for art historians – has had a distinct impact on literary theory and philosophy in Europe and North America. Considered one of the first theorists of aesthetic abstraction in the twentieth century, as well as one of the first critics to coin the term “Expressionist”, Worringer also speaks to a complex legacy of nineteenth-century vitalist thought (

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1878 words

Citation: Dittrich, Josh. "Wilhelm Worringer". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 January 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5978, accessed 21 November 2024.]