Rudolph Arnheim
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Rudolf Arnheim (; July 15, 1904 – June 9, 2007) was a German-born writer, art and film theorist, and perceptual psychologist. He learned
Gestalt psychology Gestalt psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology and a theory of perception that emphasises the processing of entire patterns and configurations, and not merely individual components. It emerged in the early twent ...
from studying under
Max Wertheimer Max Wertheimer (; April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943) was a psychologist who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. He is known for his book ''Productive Thinking'' and for conceiving the ...
and
Wolfgang Köhler Wolfgang Köhler (; 21 January 1887 – 11 June 1967) was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology. During the Nazi regime in Germany, he pro ...
at the
University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
and applied it to art.The Intelligence of Vision: An Interview with Rudolf Arnheim
''cabinetmagazine.org''.
His magnum opus was his book ''Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye'' (1954). Other major books by Arnheim have included ''Visual Thinking'' (1969), and ''The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts'' (1982). ''Art and Visual Perception'' was revised, enlarged and published as a new version in 1974, and it has been translated into fourteen languages. He lived in Germany, Italy, England, and the U.S., where he taught at
Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...
,
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, and the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
. In ''Art and Visual Perception'', he tried to use science to better understand art. In his later book ''Visual Thinking'' (1969), Arnheim critiqued the assumption that language goes before perception. For Arnheim, the only access to reality we have is through our senses. Arnheim argued that perception is strongly identified with thinking, and that artistic expression is another way of reasoning. In ''The Power of the Center'', Arnheim addressed the interaction of art and architecture on concentric and grid spatial patterns. He argued that form and content are indivisible, and that the patterns created by artists reveal the nature of human experience.


Early years

Rudolf Arnheim was born into a Jewish family in 1904 on
Alexanderplatz (, ''Alexander Square'') is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from in the north-ea ...
, in Berlin.Rudolf Arnheim: The Little Owl on the Shoulder of Athene
/ref> Not long after he was born, his family moved to Kaiserdamm in Charlottenburg, where they stayed until the early 1930s. He was interested in art from a young age, as he began drawing as a child.A Conversation with Rudolf Arnheim
''JSTOR''.
His father, Georg Arnheim, owned a small piano factory, and Georg Arnheim's plan for his son was for him to take over the factory. However, Rudolf wanted to continue his education, so his father agreed that he could spend half his week at the university and the other half at the factory. Rudolf ended up spending more time at the university, and when he was at the factory he was distracting the employees with his inquisitions about the mechanics of the piano, so his father agreed to let him focus entirely on his education. Rudolf was interested in psychology as long as he could remember, with his specific memory of buying some of the first editions of
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
's books when he was fifteen or sixteen. These fueled his interest in
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
.


Career

Arnheim attended the
University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
, where he wished to focus his studies on psychology. At that time, psychology was a branch of philosophy, so Arnheim ended up majoring in experimental psychology and philosophy, and minoring in art history and music. There were many prominent faculty members at the university at this time, among them were
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
,
Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (; ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quantum, quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial con ...
,
Max Wertheimer Max Wertheimer (; April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943) was a psychologist who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. He is known for his book ''Productive Thinking'' and for conceiving the ...
, and
Wolfgang Köhler Wolfgang Köhler (; 21 January 1887 – 11 June 1967) was a German psychologist and phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer and Kurt Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt psychology. During the Nazi regime in Germany, he pro ...
. Because Wertheimer and Köhler were in the psychology department, most of the psychology concerned
Gestalt psychology Gestalt psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology and a theory of perception that emphasises the processing of entire patterns and configurations, and not merely individual components. It emerged in the early twent ...
. The Psychological Institute of Berlin University was located on two floors of the Imperial Palace, so Arnheim worked in makeshift laboratories decorated with paintings of angels and other artwork. This institute was more of a workshop because everyone was doing experiments and using each other rather than sitting in lectures. For Arnheim's dissertation, Max Wertheimer asked him to study human facial expressions and handwriting and how they corresponded. He looked at the extent to which people perceive an expression when they look at a face and what they perceive from a person's handwriting, as well as how the two corresponded. This was the beginning of Arnheim's study of expression, which he moved to looking at with visual arts. In 1928, he received his doctorate. In the mid-1920s, Arnheim started to write film criticism for the ''Stachelschwein''. Meanwhile, he sent his works to
Siegfried Jacobsohn Siegfried Jacobsohn (28 January 1881–3 December 1926) was a German journalist, editor and theatre critic. In 1905 he founded the magazine ''Die Schaubühne'' (The Schaubühne) and in 1918 renamed it ''Die Weltbühne'' (The Weltbühne), of whi ...
, the chief editor at ''Die Weltbühne'', who accepted them. When Jacobsohn died in 1928, Ossietzky took over and then Arnheim worked on the cultural section until 1933. In the fall of 1932, Arnheim had an essay published in the ''
Berliner Tageblatt The ''Berliner Tageblatt'' or ''BT'' was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872 to 1939. Along with the '' Frankfurter Zeitung'', it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time. History The ''Berli ...
'', about three months before the Nazis came to power. The essay was about the nature of
Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
's and
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
's moustaches and what the moustache did to the nose in terms of human character. Considering the timing of this essay, and the fact that in 1933 the sale of his book ''Film as Art'' was no longer permitted due to the Nazis, some of Arnheim's friends advised him that he should leave the country and so, in August 1933, he moved to Rome. Arnheim lived and wrote about film and radio in Rome for the next six years. When World War II broke out, he moved to London, and he worked as a wartime translator for the
British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...
. He moved to the United States in 1940 and was shocked by all the lights of New York City. For him it was "the end of exile" since he had been used to living with constant black outs in London. In 1943, he became a psychology professor at
Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...
and a visiting lecturer at the
New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...
. Around this time he received two major awards. First, he received a Fellowship from the
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
. With this he worked at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
with their Office of Radio Research to analyze soap-operas and how they affected American audiences. He also received the
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
in 1942 in order to study perception in art. He ideally wanted to write about applying Gestalt theory to visual arts, but felt he did not have enough research. He postponed the book in order to do more studies on space, expression, and movement. In 1951, Arnheim was awarded another Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship so that he could take a leave from teaching and he wrote ''Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye''. Arnheim was invited to join
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
as professor of the psychology of art in 1968, and he stayed there for six years. The
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the only building designed primarily by Le Corbusier in the United States—he contributed to the design of the United Nations Secretariat Building— ...
at Harvard was an important building to him, as it was the only building designed in America by
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
and it was based on the modular theory. He retired in 1974 to
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...
with his wife Mary. He became a visiting professor at the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
and taught there for ten years. Arnheim was a part of the
American Society for Aesthetics American Society for Aesthetics (ASA) is a philosophical organization founded in 1942 to promote the study of aesthetics. The ASA sponsors national and regional conferences, and publishes the '' Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', the ' ...
and was their president for two terms, and was also the president for the Division on Psychology and the Arts of the
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
for three terms. In 1976, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died in Ann Arbor in 2007.


Works

Although ''Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye'' took fifteen months to complete, he felt that he essentially wrote it in one long sitting. Revised in 1974, it has been translated into fourteen languages, and is one of the most influential art books of the century. In ''Art and Visual Perception'', he attempts to use science to better understand art, still keeping in mind the important aspects of personal bias, intuition, and expression. ''Visual Thinking'' (1969) challenges the differences between thinking versus perceiving and intellect versus intuition. In it Arnheim critiques the assumption that language goes before perception and that words are the stepping stones of thinking. Sensory knowledge allows for the possibility of language, since the only access to reality we have is through our senses. Visual perception is what allows us to have a true understanding of experience. Arnheim also argues that perception is strongly identified with thinking, and that artistic expression is another way of reasoning. In ''The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts'' (1982), Arnheim addresses the interaction of art and architecture on concentric and grid spatial patterns. He argues that form and content are indivisible, and that the patterns created by artists reveal the nature of human experience.


Theories

Arnheim believed that most people have their most productive ideas in their early twenties. They get hooked on an idea and spend the rest of their lives expanding on it. Arnheim's productive or generative idea was that the meaning of life and the world could be perceived in the patterns, shapes, and colors of the world. Therefore, he believed that we have to study those patterns and discover what they mean. He believed that artwork is visual thinking and a means of expression, not just putting shapes and colors together that look appealing. Art is a way to help people understand the world, and a way to see how the world changes through your mind. Its function is to show the essence of something, like our existence. Overall, he wrote fifteen books about perceptual psychology and art, architecture, and film.


Publications

*1928: Experimentell-psychologische Untersuchungen zum Ausdrucksproblem. ''Psychologische Forschung, 11'', 2–132. *1932: Film als Kunst. Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt. Neuausgaben: 1974, 1979, 2002. . *1933/1936: Rundfunk als hörkunst/Radio as Sound *1943: Gestalt and art. ''Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2'', 71–5. *1949/1966: Toward a Psychology of Art. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. . *1954/1974: Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. . *1957: Film as Art, Berkeley: University of California Press. revised and reduced version of Film als Kunst, 1932.*1962/1974: Picasso's Guernica. Berkeley: University of California Press. . *1969: Visual Thinking. Berkeley: University of California Press. . *1971: Entropy and Art. Berkeley: University of California Press. . *1972/1996: Anschauliches Denken. Zur Einheit von Bild und Begriff. Erstausgabe 1972, nun Köln: DuMont Taschenbuch 1996. *1977: The Dynamics of Architectural Form. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. . *1977: Kritiken und Aufsätze zum Film. (Hrsg.: Helmut H. Diederichs) München: Hanser. *1979: Radio als Hörkunst. München: Hanser. Neuausgabe: 2001 (Suhrkamp). *1982/88: The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts. Berkeley: University of California Press. . *1986: New Essays on the Psychology of Art. Berkeley: University of California Press. . *1989: Parables of Sun Light: Observations on Psychology, the Arts, and the Rest. Berkeley: University of California Press. . *1990: Thoughts on Art Education. Los Angeles: Getty Center for Education. . *1992: To the Rescue of Art. Berkeley: University of California Press. . *1996: The Split and the Structure. Berkeley: University of California Press. . *1997: Film Essays and Criticism. University of Wisconsin Press. . *2004: Die Seele in der Silberschicht. (Hrsg.: Helmut H. Diederichs) Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. *2009: I baffi di Charlot. Scritti italiani sul cinema 1932-1938. (Ed.: Adriano D'Aloia) Turin: Kaplan. . *2012: Cinema como Arte. As técnicas da linguagem audiovisual. (Transl.: Marco Bonetti) Niterói: Muiraquitan.


See also

*
Spatial visualization ability Spatial visualization ability or visual-spatial ability is the ability to mentally manipulate 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional figures. It is typically measured with simple cognitive tests and is predictive of user performance with some kinds o ...


References


Further reading

* Verstegen, Ian: ''Arnheim, Gestalt and Art: A Psychological Theory.'' Springer, 2005.


External links

*
Rudolf Arnheim: A Web Site on His Life and WorkThe Intelligence of Vision: An Interview with Rudolf ArnheimBiography: Rudolf Arnheim, archived pages from the Internet Archive(PDF)Ian Verstegen, "Rudolf Arnheim"Rudolf Arnheim papers
from the Smithsonian
Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

RudolfArnheim.net , Resources on Arnheim and cinema in Italy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnheim, Rudolf 1904 births 2007 deaths Film theorists American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Gestalt psychologists Jewish American scientists Writers from Berlin Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Sarah Lawrence College faculty Harvard University Department of Psychology faculty University of Michigan people Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences German men centenarians American male non-fiction writers University of Michigan faculty 20th-century German psychologists Jewish centenarians German philosophers of art