THE.

HIDDEN ORDER
OF ART
 ANTON EHRENZWEIG
1/

/THE HIDDEN ORDER

OF ART/
A Study in the Psychology of
Artistic Imagination

University of California Press

Berkeley and Los Angeles 1969
 University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

© 1967 by Anton Ehrenzweig

znd printing, 1969
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 67-2°443

N
7/
,ES
/tt67

Printed in Great Britain

To my wife
 Contents

Preface

BOOK ONE: CONTROLLING THB WORK

Part 1: Order in Chaos

I The child's Vision of the World 3
t2 The Two Kinds of Attention 21
3 Unconscious Scanning 32

Part II: Creative Conflict

ｾＮ The Fertile Motif and the Happy Accident
5 The Fragmentation of 'Modem Art'
6 The Inner Fabric

Part III: Teaching Creativity

"\7. The Three Phases of Creativity 95
8 Enveloping Pictorial Space 110

9 Abstraction 128
\10 Training Spontaneity through the Intellect 142

BOOK TWO: STIRRING THE IMAGINATION

Part IV: The Theme of the Dying God

II The Minimum Content of Art
V2 The Self-Creating God
13 The Scattered and Buried God 212
14 "The" Devoured and Burned God 228

Part V: Theoretical Conclusions

IS Towards a Revision of Current Theory 257
16 Ego Dissociation 280

Appendix: Glossary 291

References 297
Index 3°1

Publisher's Note
At the time of his death, the author had passed for press the manuscript
of his book, the illustrations and captions. He did not draft an acknow-
ledgement, but had particularly wanted to thank the artists who have
allowed their works to be reproduced in his book, and who supplied
photographs and information about them:
Maurice Agis and Peter Jones, David Barton, Richard Hamilton,
Peter Hobbs, Henry Moore, Eduardo Paolozzi, Bridget Riley,
Feliks Topolski and Fritz Wotruba.
The publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to Mrs
Ehrenzweig, Miss Anna Kallin and Mrs Marion Milner, who read the
proofs.
 Plates
(between pages 146 and 147)

I Cycladic idol of the Mother Goddess, c. 3000 BC. R. Sainsbury

Collection
2 Bronze-age pot of the Lausitz culture, c. rzth century BC. British
Museum (by courtesy of the Trustees)
3 David Barton, Variations on the theme of the 'dying god', 1965.
4 Eduardo Paolozzi, screen-printed ceiling paper for the offices of
Ove Arup and Partners, London, 1951
S Eduardo Paolozzi, Welded aluminium sculpture, Towards a new
Laocoon, 1963
6 Eduardo Paolozzi, Welded aluminium sculpture (Medea series),
1964
7 Detail of decoration on an Attic amphora of the transitional
period, c. 700 Be. British Museum (photo J. R. Freeman)
8 Detail from an Egyptian relief showing Akhnaton caressing his
child, c. 1360 Be, Xgyptische Abteilung der staatlichen Museum,
Berlin
9 Details from three cartoons of 1805 showing the younger Pitt.
British Museum (photo J. R. Freeman)
10 Paul Klee, Bin neues Gesicht, water colour, 1932. Karl Stroher
Collection
II Alberto Giacometti, Seated Man, 1949. Tate Gallery, London
(reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees - Rights Reserved
ADAGP)
12 Alberto Giacometti, Standing Woman, c. 1958-9. Tate Gallery,
London (reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees)
13 Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-portrait (detail), 1663- Kenwood House
(copyright Greater London Council)
14 Rembrandt, Kenwood self-portrait (whole picture)
15 Albrecht Durer, Vilana Windisch, 1505. British Museum (by
courtesy of the Trustees)
16 Durer, Vilana Windisch (detail)
1*
17 Feliks Topolski, Congolese Soldiers and Officers (from Topolski's
Chronicle, vol. ix, 1961)
18 Jackson Pollock, Drawing, c. 1951. Collection of Mrs Lee Krasner
Pollock, Courtesy Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York
19 Georges Braque, Glass andPitcher, Private Collection
20 Bridget Riley, Straight Curve, 1963 (detail of upper section)
21-3 Maurice Agis and PeterJones, Enclosing andOpening Space, 1966
24 Peter Hobbs, Form Space fOr Diogenes NO.4, 1964
2S Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Vollard, 1910. Modem Art Museum,
Moscow (photo Editions Cercle d'Art)
26 Fritz Wotruba, Grosse Liegende, 1951. M. Mautner Markhof
Collection
27 Dormition of the Virgin, mosaic in Kariye Camii, Istanbul, c. 1315
(by courtesy of the Byzantine Institute Inc.)
28 Michelangelo, Rondanini Pieta, 1564 (photo Alinari)
29 Henry Moore, Heinlet Head NO.5 (Giraffe), 1966. Marlborough
Fine Art Ltd
30 Detail ofpanel and ignudi from Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, IjlI
(photo Alinari)

Line Drawings
I Episode from Bristow by Frank Dickens (from the London
Evening Standard) 8
2 Illustration from Jean Cousin's Livre de Povrtraitvre, 1600 16
3 Rubin's double profiles - 23
4 The maze (serial structure) of a creative search 36
j The rupture in the third movement of Beethoven's Ham-
merclavier Sonata j I
6 Map of the London Underground railway (by permission
of London Transport) 60
7 Page from Richard Hamilton's typographic reconstruction
of Marcel Duchamp's Green Box 98
8 Illustration from the Green Box reconstruction 99
9 Example of Alberti bass in the slow movement ofMozart's
Piano Sonata in C major (K.545) lIS
10 Diagram of a variant ofJosef Albers's Homage to the Square 156
I I Diagram of colour serialization I6 S
Rights reserved ADAGP and SPADEM.
 Preface

THB argument of this book ranges from highly theoretical specu-

lations to highly topical problems of modern art and practical
hints for the art teacher, and it is most unlikely that I can find a
reader who will feel at home on every level of the argument. But
fortnnately this does not really matter. The principal ideas of the
book can be understood even if the reader follows only one of
the many lines of the discussion. The other aspects merely add
stereoscopic depth to the argument, but not really new substance.
May I, then, ask the reader not to be irritated by the obscurity of
some of the material, to take out from the book what appeals to
him and leave the rest unread? In a way this kind ofreading needs
what I will call a1yncretistic approach. Children can listen breath-
lessly to a tale of which they understand only little. In the words
of William James they take 'flying leaps' over long stretches that
elude their understanding and fasten on the few points that appeal
to them. They are still able to profit from this incomplete under-
standing. This ability ofunderstanding - and it is an ability - may
be due to their syncretistic capacity to comprehend a total struc-
ture rather than analysing single elements. Child art too goes for
the total structure without bothering about analytic details. I
myself seem to have preserved some of this ability. This enables
me to read technical books with some profit even if I am not
conversant with some of the technical terms. A reader who can-
not take 'flying leaps' over portions of technical information
which he cannot understand will become of necessity a rather
narrow specialist. It is an advantage therefore to retain some of
the child's syncretistic ability, in order to escapeexcessive speciali-
zation. This book is certainly not for the man who can digest his
information only within a well-defmed range of technical terms.