Starting from Erwin Panofsky’s well-known polemical exchange of letters with Barnett Newman, and taking into account some few hints to contemporary artists which can be found into the Princeton Professor’s private correspondence, this essay deals with the theoretical reasons why one of the most original and influent art historians of the whole 20th Century has never really come to terms with even the notion of “abstract” art. It then focuses on the seemingly paradoxical concept of “abstract sublime” as proposed by Robert Rosenblum and further developed by Jean-François Lyotard in order to show how iconographic-iconological analysis could be fruitfully applied to non-figurative works of art.

The Panofsky-Newman Controversy: Iconography and Iconology Put to the Test of "Abstract" Art

Pietro Conte
2015-01-01

Abstract

Starting from Erwin Panofsky’s well-known polemical exchange of letters with Barnett Newman, and taking into account some few hints to contemporary artists which can be found into the Princeton Professor’s private correspondence, this essay deals with the theoretical reasons why one of the most original and influent art historians of the whole 20th Century has never really come to terms with even the notion of “abstract” art. It then focuses on the seemingly paradoxical concept of “abstract sublime” as proposed by Robert Rosenblum and further developed by Jean-François Lyotard in order to show how iconographic-iconological analysis could be fruitfully applied to non-figurative works of art.
2015
8
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
THE PANOFSKY-NEWMAN CONTROVERSY.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Versione dell'editore
Licenza: Accesso libero (no vincoli)
Dimensione 388.62 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
388.62 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in ARCA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/3709113
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 0
social impact