A Discussion On The Concept Of Gombrich's Art History

Gombrich is one of the most important figure of art history studies in twentieth Century. As an art theorist and art historian, in Europe and the United States, he has always been a controversial scholar. Art historians tend to consider him as a pioneer of modern methods of art history. But, they also think that Gombrich's theories concerning Art History are lack of consistency. Although he is well known because of the famous book "the History of Art", he is a figure which many scholars tend to surpass. Scholars nowadays consider him as a representative of the "West-centered theory".In 21th Century, we have already entered an era of muti-media. The question is that how we view the spiritual legacy of this cultural master? And to answer this, is the aim of this article. This article mainly refers to a book called "Topics of our times", which contains his several lectures on the technique of writing art history. What we could see from this book is that how Gombrich viewed the writing of art history, and the nature of art practice. Through this book, we could find out something that were neglected by scholars, which is the vision of Gombrich's art history. He did not see art history as art history alone. He hoped that he could explain the interactions between society and art. He was also keen on talking about the ethical meaning of art history which is a part of our civilization. In other word, the art history of Gombrich, was a part of his history on civilization. Therefore, he is the master of Humanism in our time. We will examine the influence of his life to his career, his theory of "going back to Artists", his critics on "Relativism" and "Neo-Platoism", and his concerning on the modern art history education and on our civilization. In one word, rethinking Gombrich, could let us be more open up when we face the multiple possibilities, and let us bear the ethical obligation of art history in modern times.