Josef Strzygokwski (1862 – 1941) was one of the central figures of the Viennese School of Art History (Wiener Schule der Kunstgeschichte; now Department of Art History, University of Vienna) in the early 20th century. His private library was bequeathed to the departmental library in 1953. While some hundred books were fully incorporated into the University as an institutional collection, a number of offprints, magazine and newspaper clippings, along with archival records, remained unnoticed for a long time.
In this project, his offprint collection is to be catalogued and documented in order to make it accessible not only to the academic community but also to the general public.
A sample list of offprints:
The collection can be viewed upon request at the Art History Department Library.
This unique collection of Strzygowski’s offprints is to be inventoried and analysed within the framework of the research project, ‘Persica Centropa: Cosmopolitan Artefacts and Artifices in the Age of Crises, 1900-1950’ , which is led by Yuka Kadoi (Department of Art History, University of Vienna) and supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF Elise Richter Program, V-995). Since summer 2023, the project has been undertaking in collaboration with Martin Steinreiber (Art History Library, University of Vienna), whereas Anton Matejicka (Department of Art History, University of Vienna) joined the team in winter 2024 as a scientific assistant to conduct an inventory.
Overall, this project looks at the formative process of Josef Strzygowski’s proposal for the role of the Orient in the development of mediaeval European art around 1900. Contrary to his widely known provocation for the Orient oder Rom debate, little has been discussed as to how his foreseeing view to non-European art histories was shaped and articulated. Furthermore, our investigation into his research method hopes to shed new light on underestimated aspects of Strzygowski’s international network of scholars and publishers. Although they are no longer major sources of information for research nowadays (having been replaced by PDFs and online publications), offprints acted as a silent yet powerful catalyst for communication among scholars in the past.
Born in Bielsko-Biała (now Poland), Strzygokwski became one of the key players of the Vienna School of Art History in the early 20th century. As a major exponent of ‘world art’, he developed a theoretical framework to underscore a non-hierarchical geographical concept of art history. Having pursued innovative approaches to the study of image, objects and buildings for most of his academic career, Strzygokwski gained the support and sympathy of students from diverse backgrounds.
Nevertheless, Strzygowski was not an uncontroversial figure in the Viennese academic circle. He was once branded the ‘King of the Huns’, owing to his rebellious academic attitude that created enemies within the Vienna School of Art History, with the result that after the death of Franz Wickhoff (1853-1909), the second chair of art history, which had already been established at the University of Vienna in 1879, was organizationally separated from the first chair and operated independently under the name I. Kunsthistorisches Institut. It was not until 1934, after Strzygowski’s retirement, that the two institutes were merged again.
Owing to his wide range of interests, Strzygowski acquired numerous publications on various subjects, ranging from mainstream European art books to obscure journal articles on non-European topics. In addition to complete books, he also accumulated a number of offprints, which were often sent to him by colleagues. During his lifetime, Strzygowski kept books, offprints and other materials both in his office and in his private apartment. After his death, several attempts were made to acquire this collection. Among these was the Department of Art History. After a short period of trusteeship, the widow Herta Karasek-Stzygowski finally agreed that the collection ‘should be permanently housed in the Art History Library of the University of Vienna and thus be subjected to scientific evaluation’ (letter on the handover of the Stzygokwski estate by his widow, 30 November 1953, IKW, institute files). The project outlined here takes this mandate into account.
