Gombrich: A Theory of Art

This is the first English translation of Gombrich: una teora del arte, by Joaqun Lorda, originally published in 1991.
Lorda was considered to be one of Gombrich’s best students and this book presents an extensive, expansive and holistic analysis of Gombrich’s thought. It is structured around a set of key ideas and themes: Science, Joke, Play and Rhetoric. Lorda provides in-depth analysis of Gombrich’s engagement with figures such as Huizinga, Freud, Hegel, and Popper.
While there has been extensive secondary literature on Gombrich, this is the first book to provide a systematic analysis of his ideas and theoretical frameworks, taking into account the entirety of his writings. This major work of scholarship sheds new light on Gombrich as a thinker and turns Gombrich’s ideas into a workable theory of art that can be used as an instrument to examine both the history of art and architecture and its current practice.

Author Biography

Joaquin Lorda (1955-2016) was Professor of Architecture at the University of Navarra, Spain. He was an avid scholar of the work of E. H. Gombrich, who considered him to be the person who most fully understood and advanced his own ideas. In 1985, he co-authored E. H. Gombrich: Conceptual Framework and Bibliography with Carlos Montes, (published by EUNSA, Pamplona) and in 1991 he wrote Gombrich: a Theory of Art (EIUNSA, Barcelona) as well as several subsequent books and articles. E. H. Gombrich (1909-2001) was an Austrian-born Art Historian Partha Mitter is Emeritus Professor in Art History, University of Sussex María Angélica Martínez is the Editor and Coordinator of the ART T&H Group at the University of Navarra, Spain Tim Nicholson is a translator who works for TISA in the Basque region, Spain. Juan Luis Lorda is Professor at the School of Theology, University of Navarra, Spain. María Antonia Frías is Emeritus Professor at the School of Architecture, University of Navarra, Spain. Ramón Alemany is a PhD student at the University of Navarra, Spain.