The Myth of Abstraction – The Hidden Origins of Abstract Art in German Literatu…

The Myth of AbstractionThe Hidden Origins of Abstract Art in German Literature\nAuthor(s): Andrea Meyertholen\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, United States\nImprint: Camden House Inc\nISBN-13: 9781640141049, 978-1640141049\nSynopsis\nAn alternative genealogy of abstract art, featuring the crucial role of 19th-century German literature in shaping it aesthetically, culturally, and socially.\n\nOnce upon a time (or more specifically, in 1911!) there was an artist named Wassily Kandinsky who created the world's first abstract artwork and forever altered the course of art history - or so the traditional story goes. A good story, but not the full story. The Myth of Abstraction reveals that abstract art was envisioned long before Kandinsky, in the pages of nineteenth-century German literature. It originated from the written word, described by German writers who portrayed in language what did not yet exist as art. Yet if writers were already writing about abstract art.