Warburgian Studies in the UK (2014-2018)

Laura Leuzzi

English abstract

Since 2014 several publications have appeared in the UK, analysing and contextualising Warburg’s theory from different approaches and disciplines.

The Warburg Institute in the UK constitutes a key centre for sponsoring and promoting research, publications and events on Aby Warburg and his legacy in the various disciplines and fields. In 2016 the Institute celebrated the 150^th anniversary of Warburg’s birth with a three-day symposium (13-15 June 2016), entitled Aby Warburg 150. Work. Legacy. Promise, organised by David Freedberg and Claudia Wedepohl. The symposium explored Warburg’s theory and work and his seminal legacy in art history, and visual and cultural studies with focuses on specific artists, periods and interdisciplinary analysis. A recording of the contributions from the symposium is now available online. The symposium was opened by the projection of the documentary Aby Warburg: Metamorphosis and Memory (2016) by the American art historian and film maker Judith Wechsler. The celebrations included also the exhibition Verknüpfungszwang (Warburg Institute, 3rd June-1st July 2016), curated by Eckart Marchand, Andrew Hewish and Claudia Wedepohl, featuring rare photographs and materials investigating Warburg’s “compulsion to connect”. Documents and images from the exposition are available online.

Most relevant current research projects on Warburg at the Institute include:

Aby Warburg: Essays and Lectures led by Dr. Claudia Wedepohl (Warburg Institute) and Professor Michael Diers (Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte, Humboldt Universität Berlin), as editors. The project started in 2011 and has as main objective the edition of Aby Warburg’s Kleine Schriften und Vorträge (“Essays and Lectures”), edited by Ulrich Pfisterer, Horst Bredekamp, Michael Diers, Uwe Fleckner, Michael Thimann and Claudia Wedepohl. The publication is expected in 2019.

The international project Bilderfahrzeuge. Aby Warburg’s Legacy and the Future of Iconology (2013-18) directed by Andreas Beyer (Basel-Paris), Horst Bredekamp (Berlin), Uwe Fleckner (Hamburg), David Freedberg (London), and Gerhard Wolf (Florence).

The Institute’s numerous recent events about Warburg’s work and theory are available through their Youtube channel (WarburgInstitute) and podcasts.

Also, a small but interesting number of contributions on Warburg, his approach and his interpretation of Old Masters and Modern Art (Hadjinicolaou 2018; Latsis 2015) was published on the peer-reviewed “Journal of Art Historiography” – supported by the Department of the History of Art at University of Birmingham – which offers many contributions on interpretations of German theory from the late 19^th and 20^th century.

An interesting reflection drawing from Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne method is the exhibition Neo Gods & Hyper Myths by Spanish artist and researcher Ira Lombardía (b. 1977) at the Scan Spanish Contemporary Art Network Foundation in London. The exhibition employing and combining different media and sources (including the Warburg Database, the Internet, popular culture) explores connections, iconography and hypervisuality.

Selected bibliography: contributions on Warburg or that explore and utilise explicitly Warburg’s method and theory

• Barea 2018
  M. Barea, Rhizomatic Mnemosyne: Warburg, Serres, and the Atlas of Hermes, “Contemporary Aesthetics” 16 (2018).
• Baert 2018
  B. Baert, He or She who Glimpses, Desires, is Wounded. A Dialogue in the Interspace between Aby Warburg and Georges Didi-Huberman, “Angelaki” 23/4 (2018), 47-79.
• Craven 2014
  D. Craven, The New German Art History: From Ideological Critique and the Warburg Renaissance to the Bildwissenschaft of the Three Bs, “Art in Translation” 6/2 (2014), 129-147.
• Finch 2016
  M. Finch, The technical apparatus of the Warburg Haus, “Journal of Visual Art Practice” 15/2-3 (2016), 94-106.
• Hadjinicolaou 2018
  Y. Hadjinicolaou, ‘Die Neue Sachlichkeit Rembrandts’. Aby Warburg's Claudius Civilis, “Journal of Art Historiography” 19 (2018).
• Ionescu 2017
  V. Ionescu, On moths and butterflies, or how to orient oneself through images. Georges Didi-Huberman’s art criticism in context, “Journal of Art Historiography” 16 (2017).
• Latsis 2015
  D. Latsis, The afterlife of antiquity and modern art: Aby Warburg on Manet, “Journal of Art Historiography” 13 (2015).
• Loewenberg 2017
  P. Loewenberg, Aby Warburg, the Hopi Serpent Ritual and Ludwig Binswanger, “Psychoanalysis and History” 19/1 (2017), 77-98.
• Marshall 2018
  D.L. Marshall, Warburgian Maxims for Visual Rhetoric, “Rhetoric Society Quarterly” 48/4 (2018), 352-379.
• Rampley 2016
  M. Rampley, Julius von Schlosser: aesthetics, art history and the book, “Report on the 150th Anniversary Conference on Julius von Schlosser, 6th and 7th October 2016: Julius von Schlosser (1866-1938), Internationale Tagung zum 150. Geburtstag, gemeinsam veranstaltet vom Kunsthistorischen Museum Wien und dem Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Wien”, “Journal of Art Historiography” 15 (2016).
• Twitchin 2016
  M. Twitchin, The Theatre of Death. The Uncanny in Mimesis Tadeusz Kantor, Aby Warburg, and an Iconology of the Actor, London 2016.
• Vassileva 2018
  B. Vassileva, Infinite Gardens of Earthly Delights: A Visual and Kinesthetic Model for Perceiving Dance, “Dance Chronicle” 41/2 (2018), 239-252.
• Warnke, Dieckmann 2016
  M. Warnke, L. Dieckmann, Prometheus meets Meta-Image: implementations of Aby Warburg’s methodical approach in the digital era, “Visual Studies” 31/2 (2016), 109-120.
• Wedepohl 2019
  C. Wedepohl, Why Botticelli? Aby Warburg’s search for a new approach to Quattrocento Italian art, in A. Debenedetti, C. Elam (eds.), Botticelli Past and Present, London 2019, 183-202.
• Wood 2014
  C. Wood, Aby Warburg, Homo victor, “Journal of Art Historiography” 11 (2014).

English abstract

This contribution focuses on the several publications appearing in the UK since 2014 to the present which analyze and contextualize Warburg’s theory from different approaches and disciplines. The leading center for sponsoring and promoting research, publications and events on Aby Warburg is the Warburg Institute in London; the peer-reviewed “Journal of Art Historiography” supported by the Department of the History of Art at the University of Birmingham is also significant.

keywords | Aby Warburg, Warburg Institute, London, Journal of Art  Historiography, University of Birminghmam. 

To cite this article: L. Leuzzi Warburgian Studies in the UK (2014-2018), “La Rivista di Engramma” n. 165, maggio 2019, pp. 119-122 | PDF of the article