Anthropological Delirium: Josef Strzygowski Confronts Alois Riegl

Abstract

Rémi Labrusse examines the opposed approaches to art history developed by the Viennese art historians Alois Riegl and Josef Strzygowski around 1900. Riegl’s championed an autonomous methodology and history of art, while Strzygowski’s attempted to connect art history with anthropology. In the 1930s Strzygowski actively contributed to publications of the French avant-garde, whereas Riegl had no presence in the contemporary art world. In a final reflection on the value of their work, Labrusse proposes that art historians today should celebrate both Riegl’s methodological autonomy and, despite the seeming incompatibility of this, its marriage with anthropology.