Hans Sedlmayr

Hans Sedlmayr (18 January 1896, in Szarvkő, Kingdom of Hungary – 9 July 1984, in Salzburg) was an Austrian art historian. Sedlmayr first studied architecture at Vienna's Technische Hochschule between 1918 and 1920. Afterward, he continued his education at the University of Vienna, where he studied art history under Max Dvořák, until Dvořák's death in 1921. He continued at the University of Vienna under Dvořák's successor, Julius von Schlosser, who advised Sedlmayr's dissertation on Austrian baroque architect, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, which was published in 1925. Sedlmayr held a chair in Art History at the University of Vienna from 1936 until 1945, then at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich from 1951 until 1964. In 1964 he was appointed as visiting professor at the University of Salzburg, where he established the art history curriculum. Sedlmayr was a strong supporter of the preservation of the old town in Salzburg. He stressed the importance of studying art and architecture in their historical and social context.[1] He specialized in the study of Baroque architecture and wrote a book on the churches of Francesco Borromini. A founding member of the New Vienna School of art history alongside Otto Pächt, which based itself on the writings of Alois Riegl, he wrote a manifesto in 1931 called Zu einer strengen Kunstwissenschaft ("Toward a Rigorous Study of Art"[2]). In this text, Sedlmayr calls on the discipline of art history to move past empirical research, and he introduces a 'second', interpretive method of art historical analysis that would discern the aesthetic nature of the artwork. This method of art history is known as Strukturforschung (structure research) or Strukturanalyse (structure analysis). He is the author of Verlust der Mitte: Die bildende Kunst des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts als Symptom und Symbol der Zeit (1948, "Loss of the Center: the Fine Arts of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries as Symptom and Symbol of the Times"), published in English in 1957 as Art in Crisis: The Lost Center.[3] In this book, Sedlmayr offers a "critique" of the spirit of the 19th Century, as revealed through the artwork created during that time period.[4]

He was a member of the Nazi Party from 1930-1932 and from 1938-1942. He left the party when the first news from the camps arrived.[5] Following World War II he lost his position at the University of Vienna as a result of his membership, although he was never prosecuted by the OSS. In this times he publishes in the review Wort und Wahrheit ("Word and Truth"), from 1946 to 1954 under the pseudonym, Hans Schwartz, his best jewish friend, murdered in the camps.In 1951 Sedlmayre was called to the University of Munich in the position of the ordinarius of the Institut of Art History.1963, he become Professor (Emeritus) at the University of Salzburg ( Austria), where he created the chair of Art History.[6]

After the loss of his first wife, Helene Fritz, 1943 he married Maria von Schmedes, a wellknown singer.1951 their only daughter Susanna was born.She became a picture restaurer,worked in Rome, Zürich, Vienna and Paris( Louvre), married a french Neurophysiologist, Jean-Patrick Gueritaud,and lives since 1979 in Marseille with her family working for the French Museums on the South coast and private collectionners.

References

  1. ↑ "Dictionary of Art Historians". Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  2. ↑ Sedlmayr, Hans (2000). Wood, Chistopher S., ed. The Vienna School Reader. Politics and Art Historical Methods in the 1930s. Cambridge, MA. pp. 131–180. ISBN 1-890951-14-5.
  3. ↑ Sedlmayr, Hans (2006) [1948/1957]. Art in Crisis: The Lost center. New Brunswick. ISBN 1-4128-0607-0.
  4. ↑ Sedlmayr, Hans (1957). Art in Crisis: The Lost Centre. London: Hollis & Carter.
  5. ↑ Haiko, Peter (1989). Heiss, Gernot; et al., eds. "'Verlust der Mitte' von Hans Sedlmayr als kritische Form im Sinne der Theorie von Hans Sedlmayr". Willfährige Wissenschaft. Die Universität Wien 1938-1945: 87.
  6. ↑ "Dictionary of Art Historians". Retrieved 15 October 2012.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, March 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.