Kunswollen And Beholder:Research On Riegl’s History And Theory Of Art

The Chinese academia’s knowledge of the studies on the prominent art historians and art history of German-speaking countries often comes from German-born scholars in the UK and in the US. Their ideas and research findings not only constituted the basis of the study of postwar art history of the English world, but also influenced the Chinese scholars to a certain extent The study of the thoughts of such scholars as Panovsky, Gombrich and so on even developed into a distinguished school. In recent years, the scholars in the UK and in the US have explored the thoughts of German art history, and many publications written in German have got republished in the English language. Many great thinkers have gained academic attention and one of them is Alois Riegl.As the representative scholar of the Vienna School of art history and the active constructor of Kunstwissenschaft, Alois Riegl is one of the most important scholars in the research field of art history that we have to mention. His theories have been discussed and elaborated by later scholars. Riegl’s thinking of the essence of art, construction of the system of art theory and development of the methodology of art history are of incalculable value to art theory and art history study in contemporary China and western world, the terms of kunstwollen, artistic value and historical value, beholder and beholding, etc. are important marks in the construction of contemporary art theory system and art history study. As a result, in consideration of the inadequacy of studies on Riegl’s contributions and the difficulties that have plagued the development of contemporary art theory, the introduction of latest research results concerning Riegl and the reevaluation of Riegl’s theoretical legacy by the western academia into the field of art study in China is vitally important. Riegl’s discussions on art history study not only bring us necessary knowledge, but also provide us with a reference for understanding the essence of art in different times and the way of interpreting artworks. Therefore, to reexamine Riegl’s theoretical system and reconsider the interrelation between the terms of haptisch and optisch, close beholding and distant beholding, beholder and artworks, artistic value and historical value, kunstwollen, etc, are of great significance to the endeavor to construct distinctive art history and art theory study in China. As the greatest art history and art theory scholar in German-speaking countries, Riegl’s huge theoretical system and deep philosophical thinking have regained the attention of western scholars. The attempt to establish a distinctive academic context in China needs the assimilation of Riegl’s thoughts.This dissertation focuses on the identity of beholder constructed by Riegl and the relevant context between the artworks and the beholding, and considers beholder and beholding as the basis of Riegl’s entire theoretical system. The terms, such as haptisch and optisch, form, style, etc., are all constructed on the basis of the beholder. Only by fully understanding how Riegl constructed the beholder, what the role of the beholder is in the analysis of artworks, and how the beholder activates artistic forms can we grasp the real sense of what Riegl called kunstwollen. As a result, we center around the kunstwollen and investigate the central ideas of Riegl’s thoughts via the clue of beholder and field of vision.