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The Social History of Art #1-2
Historia social de la literatura y el arte
En la introducción a esta edición, que respeta la forma en que el libro se publicó originalmente, Valeriano Bozal nos propone fijar la atención en el magnífico intento de Hauser por comprender el presente a través de la investigación histórica. Algunas de las hipótesis propuestas pueden prender en el lector, al punto de imponerse a su juicio por la lógica y la brillantez, por la convicción, por la capacidad de sugerir y evocar más que por la verificación, por su forma de vincular grandes acontecimientos, obras y autores muy concretos en el marco socioeconómico de su tiempo, por su capacidad de generalización y por su compromiso con la exigencia de mantener la relación entre la literatura y las artes plásticas.
- GenresArtNonfictionHistory
568 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
40 people are currently reading
429 people want to read
About the author
Arnold Hauser
165 books70 followersArnold Hauser was born in Temesvar (now Timisoara, Romania), to a family of assimilated Jews. He studied history of art and literature at the universities of Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, and Paris. In Paris his teacher was Henri Bergson who influenced him deeply. To earn extra income he reported on art, literature and cultural events for the Temesvári Hírlap (Temesvár News). For a period he was a teacher at a Budapest Gymnasium.
In 1916 Hauser became a member of the Budapest Sunday Circle, which was formed around the critic and philosopher György Lukács. The group included Karl Mannheim, a sociologist, the writers Béla Balázs, and the musicians Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. Mannheim, who had at first rejected the idea that sociology could be useful in the understanding of thought, soon became convinced of its utility. Also Frigyes Antal (1887-1954) applied the sociological method to art.
After World War I Hauser spent with his bride two years in Italy doing research work on the history of classical and Italian art and earned his Ph.D. in Budapest. His dissertation dealt with the problem of aesthetic systematization. In 1921 he moved to Berlin. By that time he had developed his view that the problems of art and literature are fundamentally sociological problems. Three years later, when his wife declared that she wanted to live closer to Hungary, the couple settled down in Vienna, where Hauser supported himself as a freelance writer and as publicity agent for of a film company. He also worked on an unfinished book, entitled Dramaturgie und Soziologie des Films. Later he said, that "For me this was the period of collecting data and experiences which I used much later in the course of my writing my works on the sociology of art."
Fleeing the Nazis after the Anschluss in Austria, Hauser and his wife emigrated in 1938 to Great Britain. Shortly upon their arrival, his wife died of influenza. Alone and without any regular income, Hauser then began to research for Social History of Art. It took ten years to finish the Marxist survey, his magnum opus of more than a thiusand pages, which appeared when he was 59. Still following what is going on in the film world, Hauser also wrote a number of essays about films for Life and Letters Today and Sight and Sound. From 1951 he was a lecturer on the history of art at the University of Leeds, and in the late 1950s a visiting professor at Brandeis University in the United States. In 1959 he became a teacher at Hornsey College of Art in London. He worked again in the United States in 1963-65 and then returned to London.
When Hungarian Radio aired a Budapest-London conversation between Hauser and Lukács in July 1969, Hauser confessed: "I am not an orthodox Marxist. My life is devoted to scholarship, not politics. My task, I feel, is not political." In 1977 Hauser moved to Hungary, where he became an honorary member of the Academy of Science. He died in Budapest on January 28, 1978, at the age of 86.
Hauser's last book, Soziologie der Kunst (1974, Sociology of Art), which he wrote racing against time and declining health, investigated the social and economic determinants of art. In this pessimistic work he distanced himself from Marxism and historical determinism. "The foreseeable future," he said, "lies in the shadow of the atom bomb, of political dictatorship, of unbridled violence and cynical nihilism. Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin left, as a permanent testament, a feeling of fear and apprehension which cannot be mastered." Hauser's suggestion that art does not merely reflect but interacts with society is a widely accepted premise. He also saw the art establishment and art reviewers as servers of commercial interests. As in his Social History of Art, Hauser's approach was Euro-centered and did not pay much attention to non-Western art.
Social History of Art was the result of thirty years of scholarly labour. It traced the production of art from Lascaux to the Film Age
In 1916 Hauser became a member of the Budapest Sunday Circle, which was formed around the critic and philosopher György Lukács. The group included Karl Mannheim, a sociologist, the writers Béla Balázs, and the musicians Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. Mannheim, who had at first rejected the idea that sociology could be useful in the understanding of thought, soon became convinced of its utility. Also Frigyes Antal (1887-1954) applied the sociological method to art.
After World War I Hauser spent with his bride two years in Italy doing research work on the history of classical and Italian art and earned his Ph.D. in Budapest. His dissertation dealt with the problem of aesthetic systematization. In 1921 he moved to Berlin. By that time he had developed his view that the problems of art and literature are fundamentally sociological problems. Three years later, when his wife declared that she wanted to live closer to Hungary, the couple settled down in Vienna, where Hauser supported himself as a freelance writer and as publicity agent for of a film company. He also worked on an unfinished book, entitled Dramaturgie und Soziologie des Films. Later he said, that "For me this was the period of collecting data and experiences which I used much later in the course of my writing my works on the sociology of art."
Fleeing the Nazis after the Anschluss in Austria, Hauser and his wife emigrated in 1938 to Great Britain. Shortly upon their arrival, his wife died of influenza. Alone and without any regular income, Hauser then began to research for Social History of Art. It took ten years to finish the Marxist survey, his magnum opus of more than a thiusand pages, which appeared when he was 59. Still following what is going on in the film world, Hauser also wrote a number of essays about films for Life and Letters Today and Sight and Sound. From 1951 he was a lecturer on the history of art at the University of Leeds, and in the late 1950s a visiting professor at Brandeis University in the United States. In 1959 he became a teacher at Hornsey College of Art in London. He worked again in the United States in 1963-65 and then returned to London.
When Hungarian Radio aired a Budapest-London conversation between Hauser and Lukács in July 1969, Hauser confessed: "I am not an orthodox Marxist. My life is devoted to scholarship, not politics. My task, I feel, is not political." In 1977 Hauser moved to Hungary, where he became an honorary member of the Academy of Science. He died in Budapest on January 28, 1978, at the age of 86.
Hauser's last book, Soziologie der Kunst (1974, Sociology of Art), which he wrote racing against time and declining health, investigated the social and economic determinants of art. In this pessimistic work he distanced himself from Marxism and historical determinism. "The foreseeable future," he said, "lies in the shadow of the atom bomb, of political dictatorship, of unbridled violence and cynical nihilism. Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin left, as a permanent testament, a feeling of fear and apprehension which cannot be mastered." Hauser's suggestion that art does not merely reflect but interacts with society is a widely accepted premise. He also saw the art establishment and art reviewers as servers of commercial interests. As in his Social History of Art, Hauser's approach was Euro-centered and did not pay much attention to non-Western art.
Social History of Art was the result of thirty years of scholarly labour. It traced the production of art from Lascaux to the Film Age
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 12, 2022
Libro que narra la historia del arte en relación con su función en la vida humana. A lo largo del texto continuamente se contestan las siguientes preguntas:
Quien hacía el arte? Y , Que razón de ser tenía la obra artística? En diferentes épocas de la historia humana, utilizando un formato de "Línea del tiempo" que va parte del Paleolítico y termina en el Barroco.
En todo el libro son escasas las veces en que el autor se detiene a explicar el lado técnico de los diferentes estilos artísticos que se estudian, el ensayo va más dirigido a crear desde una perspectiva social una compresión de la obra de arte.
Quien hacía el arte? Y , Que razón de ser tenía la obra artística? En diferentes épocas de la historia humana, utilizando un formato de "Línea del tiempo" que va parte del Paleolítico y termina en el Barroco.
En todo el libro son escasas las veces en que el autor se detiene a explicar el lado técnico de los diferentes estilos artísticos que se estudian, el ensayo va más dirigido a crear desde una perspectiva social una compresión de la obra de arte.
August 5, 2021
Imprescindibile, per quanto datatato. L'arte vista attraverso i meccanismi sociali e culturali che l'hanno generata, e che l'hanno sovradeterminata in un riduzionismo economico-sociale di tipo marxista, che se è in alcuni punti riduttivo appunto, resta senza dubbio molto interessante, e convincente.
June 12, 2019
Bellissima rassegna - completa anche se a volo d'uccello - di tutte le forme espressive dell'arte e della Cultura - quella con la C maiuscola - occidentale. Bella perché collega l'arte in tutte le sue espressioni con l'economia, la sociologia, l'antropologia ...
Da questo momento (il 200) alla ribalta della vita sociale [la borghesia] assume quella posizione di “ terzo stato” che determinerà il corso della storia moderna e imprimerà il suo carattere all’Occidente. Dalla costituzione della Borghesia come classe fino alla fine dell’Ancien Régime non si operano più grandi mutamenti nella struttura della società occidentale, ma ogni mutamento è opera della Borghesia
Da questo momento (il 200) alla ribalta della vita sociale [la borghesia] assume quella posizione di “ terzo stato” che determinerà il corso della storia moderna e imprimerà il suo carattere all’Occidente. Dalla costituzione della Borghesia come classe fino alla fine dell’Ancien Régime non si operano più grandi mutamenti nella struttura della società occidentale, ma ogni mutamento è opera della Borghesia
September 14, 2015
detto anche l' Hauser, in un gergo tra il familiare e il settario che, giovani intellettuali con la puzzetta sotto il naso, usavamo per riferirci a una delle nostre pietre miliari. Se l'affabulatore Gombrich (senza articolo) ci raccontava storie affascinanti di uomini che riuscivano a parlare con noi da lontananze soprendenti l'Hauser, più severo, ci introduceva alla dimensione sociale della produzione artistica, altra folgorazione che gli studi scolastici non ci avevano lasciato sospettare. Ma si sa, erano tempi in cui la parola sociale pervadeva le nostre vite e le nostre coscienze...
December 2, 2010
An incredible masterpiece that shifts our normal vision of art and history.
January 14, 2026
Masterwork!
Magnum opus...
Sinema üzerine bu kadar erken dönemde yazdıkları bugün için bile aydınlatıcı ve ufuk açıcı... Deleuze'ün sinema üzerine düşünceleri ile birlikte okunduğunda çok leziz bir metin oluyor.
Hauser'e göre, modern sanat, temelden çirkin bir sanattır. Süslü ve sevinç dolu; hoş ve güzel şeylerden sinirli bir kaçış halidir. Modern alan, ürkütücü farklılıkların durmadan çarpıştığı bir alan; modern estetik kültür de burada meydana geliyor.
Bir çok bakımdan tiyatro, sinemaya en çok benzeyen sanattır. Ancak, tiyatro sahnesi biraz dünyavi biraz kurgusaldır. Sinema ise hem dünyevi hem kurgusaldır. Sinemada gerçek ve kurgu girift; ikisi arasındaki sınırlar akıcıdır.
Rusların "montaj" keşfi; kronolojik olarak Amerikalıların yakın çekim (close-up) keşfini takip eder. Ruslar, bazı sinirsel ritimleri; insanın ruh halinin çırpıntılarını yakın çekim ve montaj ile birlikte kullanarak bir anlamda expresyonist (dışavurumcu) bir anlatım yolu ortaya çıkarır.
Mantaj tekniğinin yaratıcı kısmı ve niteliği; kısa çekimler, ritim (hızlı ya da yavaş), çekim açılarının değişkenliği gibi unsurların ötesinde, gerçeğin heterojen yapısını yansıtmak, bunu önümüze koymakla ilgili...
Magnum opus...
Sinema üzerine bu kadar erken dönemde yazdıkları bugün için bile aydınlatıcı ve ufuk açıcı... Deleuze'ün sinema üzerine düşünceleri ile birlikte okunduğunda çok leziz bir metin oluyor.
Hauser'e göre, modern sanat, temelden çirkin bir sanattır. Süslü ve sevinç dolu; hoş ve güzel şeylerden sinirli bir kaçış halidir. Modern alan, ürkütücü farklılıkların durmadan çarpıştığı bir alan; modern estetik kültür de burada meydana geliyor.
Bir çok bakımdan tiyatro, sinemaya en çok benzeyen sanattır. Ancak, tiyatro sahnesi biraz dünyavi biraz kurgusaldır. Sinema ise hem dünyevi hem kurgusaldır. Sinemada gerçek ve kurgu girift; ikisi arasındaki sınırlar akıcıdır.
Rusların "montaj" keşfi; kronolojik olarak Amerikalıların yakın çekim (close-up) keşfini takip eder. Ruslar, bazı sinirsel ritimleri; insanın ruh halinin çırpıntılarını yakın çekim ve montaj ile birlikte kullanarak bir anlamda expresyonist (dışavurumcu) bir anlatım yolu ortaya çıkarır.
Mantaj tekniğinin yaratıcı kısmı ve niteliği; kısa çekimler, ritim (hızlı ya da yavaş), çekim açılarının değişkenliği gibi unsurların ötesinde, gerçeğin heterojen yapısını yansıtmak, bunu önümüze koymakla ilgili...
September 4, 2025
Un classico! Tuttavia piuttosto datato nei giudizi sociali per una pervasività ideologica dell’analisi che mi pare chiaramente Marxista.
Certi passaggi suonano oggi molto forzati.
Certi passaggi suonano oggi molto forzati.
September 11, 2025
Riflessioni molto interessanti anche se difficili da comprendere, serve assolutamente avere una cultura abbastanza ampia di storia dell’arte europea prima di iniziare a leggere.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews