Gombrich, E. H.
Gombrich, E. H.
Bio Sketch
E. H. Gombrich (1909–2001) was an Austrian-born British art historian. His book The Story of Art (1950) is one of the most popular art history texts ever written. His work on perception, representation, and the psychology of images (Art and Illusion, Meditations on a Hobby Horse) influenced architectural theorists including Venturi, Scott Brown, and Colquhoun. He argued against the idea that forms have inherent expressive content, emphasizing instead the role of convention and cultural context in interpretation.
Key Works
- The Story of Art (1950)
- Art and Illusion (1960) — Study of the psychology of pictorial representation
- Meditations on a Hobby Horse (1963) — Essays on art and symbolism
- The Sense of Order (1979) — Study of decorative art
Key Concepts
Concepts associated with this author that have pages in this wiki:
- symbolism
- perception (page needed)
- representation (page needed)
Relevance to Geoffrey's Research
Gombrich's work provides:
- Psychological framework for understanding perception of architectural form
- Critique of expressionist theories of form
- Foundation for semiotic approaches to architecture
Source Support
Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:
- source-notes/venturi-1977-learning-from-las-vegas
- Ornament and Order (Soulillou 2002/2006) — Gombrich cited on excess: with Ruskin and Norbert Elias, among those who "have clearly shown that excess does not have any meaning – except perhaps a blasphemous one! – in the religious context, and that there were never enough ornaments, neither in quality nor quantity, to pay homage to the divinity" (p. 321) — the excess-without-limit register of the ornamental general economy (see ornamental-excess).
