Abstraction and Eisenman

While reading Eisenman’s “Post-Functionalism” from Oppositions 6 (1976), I couldn’t help but think of Willem Worringer’s seminal dissertation, “Abstraction and Empathy” (1907). Simply put, Worringer argues that there are two main kinds of art: art of “abstraction”, related to a more primitive world view, and art of “empathy”, applied to the realism seen in European art since the Renaissance. Essentially, if people felt comfortable or at ease with the world, they sought to reproduce it with representational art. Conversely, if people felt uncomfortable with their surroundings, they instead produced abstract art. However, Worringer argues that abstract art is in no way inferior to empathetic art.

I can’t help but wonder what, if any, influence Worringer had on Eisenman and other critical architects. Disillusioned with the failures of Modernism, it seems as though Eisenman and his peers rejected the outside world and instead looked introspectively, designing architecture for architecture’s sake. Does this rejection of Modernism mirror the artists’ earlier rejection of European urban life that led to the developments of Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism, and other modern artistic movements? Styles and movements that turned away from representation and embraced abstraction as a means to convey feelings of unease, anxiety, or hope for a utopian future? While Worringer's work predates Eisenman and speaks more to primitive art, I think the idea of the dichotomy between abstract and empathetic art (or architecture) still apply. 

Drawing by Eisenmann

 Composition by Malevich (arguably influenced by the Cubists mentioned earlier)