Lara BONNEAU  (CEFRES & Université Paris I)
will hold a conference in the frame of the Seminary Collegium historiae artium of the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of sciences

Where: Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Husova 4, Prague 1, room 117
Language: English

The work of the Art historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929) was elaborated within a philosophical and theoretical corpus that tends to be neglected. His esthetics was part of a more general project : elaborating a Psychology based on the relationships of the different symbolic forms forged by human beings. His method thus oscillates between an extreme attention to the details of the works of Art, and the general ambition to build a « Science of Culture ». We will focus on the notion of « energy » and relate it to the use Warburg makes of the concept of « polarity ». This way, we will try to understand the role philosophical influences played in the developpement of his work.