Rudolf Arnheim (July 15, 1904 – June 9, 2007) was a German-born author, art and film theorist and perceptual psychologist. He himself said that his major books are Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye (1954), Visual Thinking (1969), and The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts (1982), but it is Art and Visual Perception for which he was most widely known. Revised, enlarged and published as a New Version in 1974, it has been translated into 14 languages, and is very likely one of the most widely read and influential art books of the twentieth century. is the 196th day of the year (197th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... is the 160th day of the year (161st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... Film theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding films relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large. ...

Formative years

Arnheim was born in Berlin, where his father owned a small piano factory. Despite the expectation that he should become a businessman, he enrolled at the University of Berlin in 1923. There, he majored in psychology and philosophy, with secondary emphases in the histories of art and music. It was there (in makeshift research facilities in the abandoned Imperial Palace) that he studied with the Gestalt psychologists, including Max Wertheimer (his Doktorvater), Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Lewin. His doctoral dissertation, which he completed in 1928, was a study of expression in human faces and handwriting. This article is about the capital of Germany. ... There is no institution called the University of Berlin, but there are four universities in Berlin, Germany: Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Technical University of Berlin (Technische Universität Berlin) Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin) Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin) This is... Look up gestalt in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Max Wertheimer (Prague, April 15, 1880 - New York, October 12, 1943) was one of the founders of Gestalt psychology. ... Wolfgang Köhler (Reval, January 21, 1887 - New Hampshire, June 11, 1967) was a gestalt psychologist. ... Kurt Zadek Lewin (September 9, 1890 – February 12, 1947) was a German psychologist and one of the pioneers of social psychology. ...

Early writings

While a graduate student, Arnheim wrote weekly film reviews for progressive Berlin publications. In 1928, having finished his dissertation, he became a junior editor for film and cultural affairs at Die Weltbühne, and on one assignment was sent to Dessau, where he wrote an article on the new Bauhaus building there, designed by Walter Gropius. Die Weltbühne (english: the World Stage) was a German weekly magazine focused on politics, art, and business. ... For information about British rock band, see Bauhaus (band). ... Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969) was a German architect and founder of Bauhaus. ...

His preoccupation with film led to the publication in 1932 of his first book entitled Film als Kunst (Film as Art), in which he examined the various ways in which film images are (and should always aspire to be) different from literal encounters with reality. However, soon after this book was released, Adolf Hitler came to power, and because Arnheim was Jewish, the sale of his book was no longer allowed. Hitler redirects here. ...

In 1933, he moved from Germany to Italy, where he remained for six years. He continued to write about film, and, in particular, contributed to an encyclopedia of the history and theory of film for the League of Nations (forerunner to the United Nations). While living in Rome, he also wrote a second book, titled Radio: The Art of Sound (1936), in which he discussed the characteristics of radio with more or less the same approach with which he had looked at film. 1939–1941 semi-official emblem Anachronous world map in 1920–1945, showing the League of Nations and the world Capital Not applicable¹ Language(s) English, French and Spanish Political structure International organization Secretary-general  - 1920–1933 Sir James Eric Drummond  - 1933–1940 Joseph Avenol  - 1940–1946 Seán Lester Historical...

Arnheim grew very fond of Italy (he felt as if it were his home, his casa propria). Unfortunately, in 1938, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini withdrew from the League of Nations, and adopted racial policies that were consistent with those of Nazi Germany. As a result, Arnheim moved to England in 1939, where he took on a position as a radio translator with BBC Radio, in which, as a person was speaking, he translated simultaneously from German to English and vice versa. Mussolini redirects here. ... BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. ...

Immigration to the U.S.

In the fall of 1940, he left England for the U.S., arriving at New York harbor at night, with all the buildings filled with lights, in sharp contrast to the blackout policies of London and the ship on which he sailed. Arriving with only ten dollars in his pocket, he received assistance from other Gestalt psychologists, including Max Wertheimer, who arranged for his appointment to the psychology faculty at the New School for Social Research. He was also prompted to apply (given his expertise in radio) for a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, by which he became an associate of the Office of Radio Research at Columbia University. He was given a fellowship, with which he conducted a study about the extent to which American radio listeners were influenced by the content of radio soap operas. New School University is an institute of higher learning in New York City. ... The Rockefeller Foundation (RF) is a prominent philanthropic organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. ... Alma Mater Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ...

Only two years after arriving in the U.S., he also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, with which he proposed to research perceptual psychology in relation to the visual arts. In 1943, he was hired to teach psychology at Sarah Lawrence College where he remained on the faculty for 26 years, and where he produced most of his work. Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college located in metropolitan New York City, about a thirty-minute train ride north of Manhattan. ...

Later years

About ten years later, having received a second Rockefeller Fellowship, he took leave for fifteen months and wrote his pioneering book titled Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye (1954). In 1959, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, with which he studied in Japan for a year. Ten years later, in 1969, he accepted an appointment at Harvard University as a Professor of the Psychology of Art. And then, in 1974, he retired from Harvard University and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where (formally and informally) he has been connected with the University of Michigan for many years. In 1981 Arnheim received a Litt.D. from Bates College. He died in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2007.^[1] The Fulbright Program is program of educational grants (Fulbright Fellowships) sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. ... Harvard redirects here. ... The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (U of M, U-M, UM or simply Michigan) is a coeducational public research university in the state of Michigan. ... Bates College is a private liberal arts college, founded in 1855 by abolitionists, located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. ... Ann Arbor redirects here. ...

Publications

• 1928: Experimentell-psychologische Untersuchungen zum Ausdrucksproblem. Psychologische Forschung, 11, 2-132.
• 1932: Film als Kunst. Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt. Neuausgaben: 1974, 1979, 2002. ISBN 978-0520248373.
• 1943: Gestalt and art. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2, 71-5.
• 1949/1966: Toward a Psychology of Art. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520021617.
• 1954/1974: Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520243835.
• 1962/1974: Picasso's Guernica. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520250079.
• 1969: Visual Thinking. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520242265.
• 1971: Entropy and Art. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520026179.
• 1972/1996: Anschauliches Denken. Zur Einheit von Bild und Begriff. Erstausgabe 1972, nun Köln: DuMont Taschenbuch 1996.
• 1977: The Dynamics of Architectural Form. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520035515.
• 1977: Kritiken und Aufsätze zum Film. (Hrsg.: Helmut H. Diederichs) München: Hanser.
• 1979: Radio als Hörkunst. München: Hanser. Neuausgabe: 2001 (Suhrkamp). ISBN 9780405035708
• 1982/88: The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520062429.
• 1986: New Essays on the Psychology of Art. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520055544.
• 1989: Parables of Sun Light: Observations on Psychology, the Arts, and the Rest. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520065369.
• 1990: Thoughts on Art Education. Los Angeles: Getty Center for Education. ISBN 9780892361632.
• 1992: To the Rescue of Art. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520074590.
• 1996: The Split and the Structure. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520204782.
• 1997: Film Essays and Criticism. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780299152642.
• 2004: Die Seele in der Silberschicht. (Hrsg.: Helmut H. Diederichs) Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

References

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External links

• RudolfArnheim.it | Researches and resources on Arnheim, Cinema, Italy
• Rudolf Arnheim: A Web Site on His Life and Work
• Roy R. Behrens, "Rudolf Arnheim: The Little Owl on the Shoulder of Athene"
• Rudolf Arnheim: A bibliography of articles, reviews, commentaries and letters published in Leonardo
• Rudolf Arnheim: A selected chronological bibliography of books
• Roy R. Behrens, "Art, Design and Gestalt Theory"
• The Intelligence of Vision: An Interview with Rudolf Arnheim
• Igor Shteyrenberg, Biography: Rudolf Arnheim BROKEN LINK (--> PDF printout here)
• Rudolf-Arnheim-Forum