Gombrich: A Theory of Art, Joaquin Lorda

This is the first English translation of Gombrich: una teoria del arte, by Joaquin 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 Gombrichs thought. It is structured around a set of key ideas and themes: Science, Joke, Play and Rhetoric. Lorda provides in-depth analysis of Gombrichs 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.