Time's Visible Surface: Alois Riegl and the Discourse on History and Temporality in Fin-De-Siècle Vienna

Expands our understanding of Alois Riegl beyond his role as an art historian to a pivotal figure in cultural theory at large, while placing his interest in history and time within the intellectual world of fin-de-siècle Vienna.

Alois Riegl’s art history has influenced thinkers as diverse as Erwin Panofsky, Georg Lukacs, Walter Benjamin, Paul Feyerabend, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari. One of the founders of the modern discipline of art history, Riegl is best known for his theories of representation. Yet his inquiries into the role of temporality in artistic production—including his argument that art conveys a culture’s consciousness of time—show him to be a more wide-ranging and influential commentator on historiographical issues than has been previously acknowledged. In Time’s Visible Surface, Michael Gubser presents Riegl’s work as a sustained examination of the categories of temporality and history in art. Supported by a rich exploration of Riegl’s writings, Gubser argues that Riegl viewed artworks as registering historical time visibly in artistic forms.

Gubser’s discussion of Riegl’s academic milieu also challenges the widespread belief that Austrian modernism adopted a self-consciously ahistorical worldview. By analyzing the works of Riegl’s professors and colleagues at the University of Vienna, Gubser shows that Riegl’s interest in temporality, from his early articles on calendar art through later volumes on the Roman art industry and Dutch portraiture, fit into a broad discourse on time, history, and empiricism that engaged Viennese thinkers such as the philosopher Franz Brentano, the historian Theodor von Sickel, and the art historian Franz Wickhoff. By expanding our understanding of Riegl and his intellectual context, Time’s Visible Surface demonstrates that Riegl is a pivotal figure in cultural theory and that fin-de-siècle Vienna holds continued relevance for today’s cultural and philosophical debates.

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Time's Visible Surface: Alois Riegl and the Discourse on History and Temporality in Fin-De-Siècle Vienna

Expands our understanding of Alois Riegl beyond his role as an art historian to a pivotal figure in cultural theory at large, while placing his interest in history and time within the intellectual world of fin-de-siècle Vienna.

Alois Riegl’s art history has influenced thinkers as diverse as Erwin Panofsky, Georg Lukacs, Walter Benjamin, Paul Feyerabend, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari. One of the founders of the modern discipline of art history, Riegl is best known for his theories of representation. Yet his inquiries into the role of temporality in artistic production—including his argument that art conveys a culture’s consciousness of time—show him to be a more wide-ranging and influential commentator on historiographical issues than has been previously acknowledged. In Time’s Visible Surface, Michael Gubser presents Riegl’s work as a sustained examination of the categories of temporality and history in art. Supported by a rich exploration of Riegl’s writings, Gubser argues that Riegl viewed artworks as registering historical time visibly in artistic forms.

Gubser’s discussion of Riegl’s academic milieu also challenges the widespread belief that Austrian modernism adopted a self-consciously ahistorical worldview. By analyzing the works of Riegl’s professors and colleagues at the University of Vienna, Gubser shows that Riegl’s interest in temporality, from his early articles on calendar art through later volumes on the Roman art industry and Dutch portraiture, fit into a broad discourse on time, history, and empiricism that engaged Viennese thinkers such as the philosopher Franz Brentano, the historian Theodor von Sickel, and the art historian Franz Wickhoff. By expanding our understanding of Riegl and his intellectual context, Time’s Visible Surface demonstrates that Riegl is a pivotal figure in cultural theory and that fin-de-siècle Vienna holds continued relevance for today’s cultural and philosophical debates.

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Time's Visible Surface: Alois Riegl and the Discourse on History and Temporality in Fin-De-Siècle Vienna

Time's Visible Surface: Alois Riegl and the Discourse on History and Temporality in Fin-De-Siècle Vienna

by Michael Gubser
Time's Visible Surface: Alois Riegl and the Discourse on History and Temporality in Fin-De-Siècle Vienna

Time's Visible Surface: Alois Riegl and the Discourse on History and Temporality in Fin-De-Siècle Vienna

by Michael Gubser

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Overview

Expands our understanding of Alois Riegl beyond his role as an art historian to a pivotal figure in cultural theory at large, while placing his interest in history and time within the intellectual world of fin-de-siècle Vienna.

Alois Riegl’s art history has influenced thinkers as diverse as Erwin Panofsky, Georg Lukacs, Walter Benjamin, Paul Feyerabend, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari. One of the founders of the modern discipline of art history, Riegl is best known for his theories of representation. Yet his inquiries into the role of temporality in artistic production—including his argument that art conveys a culture’s consciousness of time—show him to be a more wide-ranging and influential commentator on historiographical issues than has been previously acknowledged. In Time’s Visible Surface, Michael Gubser presents Riegl’s work as a sustained examination of the categories of temporality and history in art. Supported by a rich exploration of Riegl’s writings, Gubser argues that Riegl viewed artworks as registering historical time visibly in artistic forms.

Gubser’s discussion of Riegl’s academic milieu also challenges the widespread belief that Austrian modernism adopted a self-consciously ahistorical worldview. By analyzing the works of Riegl’s professors and colleagues at the University of Vienna, Gubser shows that Riegl’s interest in temporality, from his early articles on calendar art through later volumes on the Roman art industry and Dutch portraiture, fit into a broad discourse on time, history, and empiricism that engaged Viennese thinkers such as the philosopher Franz Brentano, the historian Theodor von Sickel, and the art historian Franz Wickhoff. By expanding our understanding of Riegl and his intellectual context, Time’s Visible Surface demonstrates that Riegl is a pivotal figure in cultural theory and that fin-de-siècle Vienna holds continued relevance for today’s cultural and philosophical debates.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780814337462
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Publication date: 01/09/2006
Series: Kritik: German Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 312
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Michael Gubser is assistant professor of history at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

What People are Saying About This

University of California, San Diego, Author of Eros and Inwardness in Vienna: Weininger, Musil, Doderer - David S. Luft

Time's Visible Surface distinguishes itself from other books on Riegl by its strong theoretical awareness (especially the connection to Walter Benjamin), by its central emphasis on the theme of time, and by its careful reconstruction of Riegl's Austrian intellectual context. Gubser emphasizes the larger philosophical context and significance of Riegl's thought beyond the narrow disciplinary concerns of art historians, and he combines close textual analysis of Riegl's works with a thoughtful contextualization of Riegl's ideas. Gubser's argument challenges the predominant scholarly view that Austrian modernism was ahistorical or even antihistorical, and brings to light the extent of Riegl's influence on Benjamin."

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