Blind Spots: Critical Theory and the History of Art in Twentieth-Century Germany

by Frederic J. Schwartz

This book is the first to focus on the extraordinary symbiosis between Critical Theory and other discourses of the visual in the first half of the twentieth century. In four extended case studies, Frederic J. Schwartz traces the way central concepts of the aesthetics later termed “Frankfurt School” were deeply rooted in contemporary developments in painting, photography, architecture, and film, as well as psychology, advertising, and the discipline of art history as it was practiced by figures such as Heinrich Wölfflin, Erwin Panofsky, Wilhelm Pinder, and Hans Sedlmayr.
Schwartz explores the shifting intersection between the history of art and the Frankfurt School and seeks to uncover its specific logic. He argues that artists, art historians, and Critical Theorists were united by a common that of exploring those aspects of modernity that could only be revealed by its visual products, of knowing the modern visually.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2005

Reviews

[John steppling · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone interested in 20th century aesthetics, in the Frankfurt School, then this is essential reading. Erudite and surprisingly jargon free. Exceptionally well researched.