A Mythology of Forms: Selected Writings on Art

423 Pages·2019·5.917 MB·English

by  Carl Einstein

Selected Writings on Art
CARL EINSTEIN
The University of Chicago Press
Edited, translated, and introduced Chicago and London
by Charles W. Haxthausen
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2019 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permis-
sion, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles
and reviews. For more information, contact the University of
Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2019
Printed in the United States of America
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226-4 6413- 8 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 46427- 5 (e- book)
doi: https:// doi .org /10 .7208 /chicago
/9780226464275 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Einstein, Carl, 1885– 1940, author. | Haxthausen,
Charles Werner, translator.
Title: A mythology of forms : selected writings on art / Carl Ein-
stein, Charles W. Haxthausen.
Description: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2019021379 | isbn 9780226464138 (cloth) |
isbn 9780226464275 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Art criticism.
Classification: lcc n7445.2 .e3913 2019 | ddc 701/ .18—dc23
lc record available at https:// lccn.loc .gov/2 019021379
♾ This paper meets the requirements of
ansi/niso z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
To Linda

T he truth is, we can do very well without art; what we can’t live
without is the myth about art. The mythmaker is successful because
he knows that in art, as in life, we need the illusion of significance.
He flatters this need.
Morton Feldman

CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xi
INTRODUCTION 1
CH. 1 Notes on Recent French Painting (1912) 16
CH. 2 Totality (1914/16) 23
CH. 3 Negro Sculpture (1915) 32
CH. 4 On Primitive Art (1919) 60
CH. 5 African Sculpture (1921) 64
CH. 6 Draft of a Letter to Daniel- Henry Kahnweiler (1923) 135
CH. 7 Cubism (1926) 145
CH. 8 The Berlin Museum for Ethnology (1926) 194
CH. 9 André Masson: Ethnological Study (1929) 203
CH. 10 Pablo Picasso (1931) 212
CH. 11 The Romantic Generation (1931) 247
CH. 12 The Blaue Reiter / Paul Klee (1931) 266
CH. 13 Two Chapters from Georges Braque (1934) 288
CH. 14 Excerpts from The Fabrication of Fictions (1935) 309
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 333
NOTES 337
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 387
INDEX 399