WORRINGER, Wilhelm | Abstraktion und Einfühlung

Munich: R. Piper and Co Verlag, 1919. 8vo.; text annotated in pencil throughout in the hand of Hans Richter; age-toned; gently warped with a few leaves torn, no text affected; notes in pencil on front endpaper; illustrated brown boards stamped in dark brown and black; mildly rubbed; bumped.  Later edition. Signed by Hans Richter on the title page.  Wilhelm Worringer (1881–1965) was a German art historian known for his theory of abstract art, which questioned what he described as “the one-sidedness and European-Classical prejudice of our customary historical conception and valuation of art.” First presented as a dissertation in 1907, Abstraktion und Einfühlung was published as a book in 1908. In the book, Worringer makes a distinction between two kinds of artistic expressions – the art of abstraction and the art of empathy, while providing a comprehensive psychological explanation of both. If the art of empathy deals with organic representation, which provides a recognizable spatial ill