The "l'art pour l'art" Problem

Abstract

EDITORIAL NoTE.-Arnold Hauser died in February 1978 shortly after returning to his native Hungary; he had lived nearly half his 85 years in a kind of self-imposed exile. He is considered, by those who know his work, to be perhaps the greatest sociologist of art, though his last years were spent in comparative neglect and obscurity. We present here as a testament to the importance of both the critic and the discipline he helped shape a section from the translation of his Sociology of Art (1974). Hauser's work draws on the influences of his teachers, Simmel, Bergson, Lukdcs, Mannheim, Sombart, and Troeltsch. He developed in his immense Social History of Art (1951) the groundworkfor a sociological analysis of art ranging from prehistoric cave painting to film. In his later works-The Philosophy of Art History (1958), Mannerism: The Crisis of the Renaissance and the Origins of Modern Art (1964), and The Sociology of Art--he continued to redefine his brilliant defense of art for society's sake.