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Ta Ta Gombrich

Not Here Still

18:03 / 07.11.01

Well, he finally snuffed it.

Ernst Gombrich was my inroduction to a lot of art. Mainly because I never used to give a damn about art other than 'well, I like that/ don't like that.'

Then, when I went off to university, I decided to take History of Art as a 'filler' module uin my literature course to see if I was missing anything.

And I was introduced to Gombrich. Wrote a massive tome on art which sort of led me in, and while I'm not Nicholas Serota yet, I'm not so much of a philistine either.

Gombrich archive

So It's cheers to Ernst for that. What do you think of him?

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:39 / 08.11.01

It's a curious thing - I didn;t know he had died. "Art and Illusion" was...useful. I don't really have much else to say.

Kit-Cat Club

08:07 / 09.11.01

Gombrich is all very well as far as he goes (which is quite a long way), but the History of Art is looking a little hidebound these days, I think.

Vitamin-C

23:15 / 09.11.01

his 'story of art' is an amazing introduction to art history. like having your favourite grandad sit there and read it to you.

i haven't thought about him for years. but now he's gone i feel kinda sad.

Kit-Cat Club

11:43 / 15.11.01

I don't really - he was fairly venerable, after all. The question is, is there anyone comparable to replace him? I scarcely think Andrew Graham Dixon and Matthew Collings are of the same stature.

The Return Of Rothkoid

16:35 / 15.11.01

Robert Hughes, perhaps? Although he does tend to cover modern stuff rather than anything earlier - unless there's a TV show in it for him, I suppose.

I'm willing to bet he's more of a deadshit, too...

Frantastic

12:24 / 19.11.01

well John Berger's still about.

To be honest - i though Gombrich died years ago... his work is an nice (rather dated) introduction to 'art'. I prefer Rosalind Krauss, TJ Clark, Rosenblum, and Barthes on art meself... but maybe they dont do that overview thing inthe same way.

Maybe we dont need a Gombrich type of overview anymore. Cant we just look at the images without a patriarchal figure telling us about it? Doesn't 'The Story of Art' come out a certain Victorian way of looking at the world?

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