The “Second” Vienna School as Social Science

Abstract

This paper addresses Kunstwollen, not as a historicized concept, but as a social scientific construct open to reinterpretation and input from the evolving sciences. Emphasizing especially the contributions of Hans Sedlmayr in his Introduction to Riegl’s Collected Works (1929) and Otto Pächt’s article on Riegl (1962), attention departs from Riegl to set the stage regarding the meaning of Kunstwollen. Emphasizing its roots in materialistic social history, inspired by evolution, the article undertakes vignettes of paired art historians and social theorists: Dvorak and Karl Mannheim, Sedlmayr and Alfred Vierkandt, and Otto Pächt and Wolfgang Metzger. It can be seen that Kunstwollen is interpreted with the tools of social science as the sociology of knowledge (Mannheim, Vierkandt) with refinements from Gestalt psychology (Metzger). As the career of Pächt progresses, the Austrian art historian looks for ways to stress continuous evolution, historical determinism and compulsion, and the super-individuality of artistic tradition.

Keywords

• Alois Riegl
• Hans Sedlmayr
• Otto Pächt
• Kunstwollen
• social collectivism
• historical determinism