Meditations on a Hobby Horse and Other Essays on the Theory of Art

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E. H. (Ernst) Gombrich

Phaidon Press, London, 2001 (4th reprint), 1971; originally published 1963, English

Nonfiction, Art and Cultural History

ISBN: 9780714832456

From the Publisher. Prompted by modern critical discussions, the 14 papers, lectures, and articles assembled in this volume revolve around key issues raised by twentieth-century art and theory. Taking abstraction and expression as his main themes, this eclectic assortment of E. H. Gombrich's monumental essays encompass the whole of the history of art, and includes major articles on the social history of art, visual metaphor, tradition and expression, and psychoanalysis.

On 2 book lists

Michael Graves

On Michael Graves’s Book List

Steven Heller

On Steven Heller’s Book List

I always hoped that Ernst H. Gombrich and I were somehow related. He married Ilse Heller, a Czech concert pianist, which meant there were some degrees of separation. Alas, no such luck. None of my family lived anywhere near Czechoslovakia. But there is a slight spiritual connection. I began my “career” writing about the history of caricature. Gombrich and psychoanalyst Erst Kris wrote a book together on the subject. Apparently, the only place it was ever published (in a sharply cut version) was in Meditations on a Hobby Horse. And that is why I treasure this book. There are many insightful essays therein, but “The Principles of Caricature” is essential reading for any practitioner, scholar, or fan of this transformative art form. It was my inspiration for many years.

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