Wilhelm Worringer

Wilhelm Worringer (* 1881 in Aachen; † 1965 in Munich) was a German art historian. He is known in connection with expressionism. Through his influence on T. E. Hulme his ideas had an effect on early British modernism, especially vorticism.

His best-known work is "Abstraction and Empathy", which was his doctoral thesis. In it he argued that there were two main kinds of art: art of "abstraction" (which was associated with a more 'primitive' world view) and art of "empathy" (which was associated with realism in the broadest sense of the word, and might be said to apply to European art since the Renaissance).

Worringer was influential because he saw abstract art (for example, Islamic art) as being in no way inferior to "realist" art, and worthy of respect in its own right. This was critical justification for the increased use of abstraction in pre-war European art.

His work was widely discussed and influenced Klee amongst others.He is credited by philosopher Gilles Deleuze in A Thousand Plateaus as being the first person to see abstraction 'as the very beginning of art or the first expression of an artistic will.' [Deleuze & Guattari "A Thousand Plateaus" Trans. Brian Massumi. London, Athlone. 1988. p 496.]

Works

* "Abstraktion und Einfühlung" (1907)
* "Formprobleme der Gotik" (1911)