Warburg, Kandinsky, and Shestov on Renewal of Art and Humanity

Artistic, Philosophical, and Psychoanalytic Perspectives

Marina G. Ogden

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978760370
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Art Theory & Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book explores the meanings of the concept of renewal in the work of the three twentieth-century innovators of European culture.

Aby Warburg's, Wassily Kandinsky's, and Lev Shestov's rethinking of the meanings of art and culture transcended temporal and disciplinary boundaries, which led to the reframing of the traditional bonds between pictorial reality and different forms of art. Drawing on intercultural and interdisciplinary perspectives, Marina G. Ogden brings the pioneering thoughts of the three twentieth-century innovators of European culture together. Making a compelling case for affirming the concept of renewal as the foremost idea galvanizing cultural advancement in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century as well as for its continued contemporary relevance, Ogden argues that the work of Warburg, Kandinsky and Shestov redefined the relationship between expression and perception, perception and memory, artist and artwork, and between artistic expression and form. By engaging Sigmund Freud's, William James,' John Ruskin's, Karl Jaspers,' Maurice Merleau-Ponty's and other thinkers' insights into philosophy, art and the nature of creativity with those of Warburg, Kandinsky and Shestov, the exploratory perusal of the concept of renewal evokes interconnections between artistic, philosophical, and psychoanalytic viewpoints.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Contents
• Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Translation
• Introduction: What Do the Historian of Culture, the Abstract Painter, and the Religious Existentialist Have in Common?
• Part I Aby Warburg and Wassily KandinskyThe Pioneers of “Thinking in Pictures”
• Part II The Seen and the Unseen
• Part III Remote Times and Metaphoric Distances
• Conclusion: Between Humanity and Divinity in Twentieth-Century Image Culture
• Appendix: Some Remarks on the Question of the Aggadah and the Philosophy of Lev Shestov
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright