Throughout the twentieth century, the relationship between representation and abstraction has been regarded predominantly in terms of opposition. One of the prominent early twentieth-century defenders of this approach is Wilhelm Worringer (1881-1965), who introduces representation and abstraction as antithetic modes of art-making in Abstraction and Empathy. A Contribution to the Psychology of Style (1908). However, while he distinguishes between abstraction and representation on theoretical grounds, Worringer also observes that, in the history of art, these modes of art-making coexist. The current thesis examines Worringer’s approach to the writing of art history and theory, inquiring into his perspective on the personal responses of viewers and artists to the world, and the manifestations of these responses in art. Abstraction and Empathy addresses issues of empathy, form, and will, in aesthetics and art-making; it discusses and extends the writings of Theodor Lipps, Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Alois Riegl. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Worringer’s book attracted much attention: like its sequel, Form in Gothic (1910), it was often associated with the rise to prominence of Expressionism in Germany. Later in the twentieth century, Worringer’s thought came under the scrutiny of Rudolf Arnheim, who criticized Worringer’s emphasis on abstract-representational opposition. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari praised Worringer’s approach to antithesis, yet questioned the terms Worringer proposed as opposites. For Arnheim, Deleuze and Guattari, alternatives to the antithesis between abstraction and representation became visible. Indeed, in Worringer’s time, artists such as Adolf Hildebrand, Ferdinand Hodler, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet and Wassily Kandinsky underscored the common grounds between representation and abstraction. Exploring Worringer’s Abstraction and Empathy and Form in Gothic, as well as the words and works of Hildebrand, Hodler, Cézanne, Monet and Kandinsky, this thesis aims to highlight abstract-representational interplay as observable in early twentieth-century writing and art-making.

[pt] Este trabalho examina o fenômeno de retomada da estética da transparência na arquitetura a partir dos anos 1990, depois de anos de latência desde a substituição da linguagem moderna, abstrata e etérea, das primeiras vanguardas por outra que expressasse aspectos regionais e fenomenológicos. Tal retomada estaria associada ao desenvolvimento das novas tecnologias digitais e à realidade estruturada segundo a dinâmica do capitalismo pós-industrial. Estas configurariam uma estrutura urbana desmaterializada, instável e independente da construção física. Tais mudanças teriam tornado obsoletos os paradigmas da solidez, funcionalidade e beleza, herdados da tradição clássica. A tendência ao desaparecimento das qualidades substanciais da arquitetura e a consequente perda dos referenciais fenomenológicos nos recolocou a questão do habitar. A estética da transparência estaria inicialmente associada à concepção iluminista, que pressupunha a clareza dos objetos e a emancipação do sujeito, mas se desdobrará no sentido da ambiguidade em função da ruptura com o conceito de espaço euclidiano, ocorrida em torno de 1910. Tal ruptura teria sido promovida tanto pelas descobertas científicas que unificavam as dimensões de tempo e espaço, quanto pela disseminação de imagens aéreas cinematográficas. As imagens retratavam o espaço topológico e apresentavam a realidade sob a ordem da fragmentação e da perda de perspectiva. A concepção de espaço topológico foi também associada aos sentimentos de angústia e desenraizamento, experimentados pelo homem moderno. A expressão dessa patologia nas artes de vanguarda será criticada por fomentar a desarticulação do engajamento político através de um método que promoveria a perda de visão da totalidade do real. Tal método teria sido desenvolvido por Wilhelm Worringer a partir da noção de Vontade de Arte, expressa no impulso para abstração, este relativo ao conceito do espaço topológico. Este trabalho verificou que tal mudança na concepção de espaço levará à reformulação do conceito de transparência de literal para fenomênica, caracterizada nas artes pela representação de múltiplos pontos de vista, da interpenetração espacial e da perda de profundidade. A transparência fenomênica será associada contemporaneamente ao espaço paranoico, que viria sendo desenvolvido com a contribuição da tecnologia digital em termos espaciais e da mutação dos corpos segundo sua conexão com a realidade virtual. A tecnologia cibernética determinaria um novo tipo de expressão da alienação e o desdobramento da noção de transparência, que qualificamos como abjeta. A transparência foi associada pelos primeiros modernos à expressão de japonidade na arquitetura, cuja essência o desenvolvimento da história tratou de contrariar ao evidenciar seu modo interativo. Verificamos neste trabalho algumas das contribuições japonesas em função de suas qualidades locais. Tomamos o edifício para a Midiateca Sendai (2001) de Toyo Ito como objeto de estudo. A Midiateca levaria ao extremo a noção de transparência ao estendê-la das fachadas às estruturas vazadas, pensadas como expressão do espaço puro na linguagem abstrata moderna. Seu programa seria multifuncional e aberto a mudanças, considerando a participação da comunidade e dos demais membros institucionais desde o processo de projeto. Esta obra responderia tanto à questão da autonomia artística quanto à da perda de função social, associadas ao esteticismo das vanguardas modernas. / [en] This dissertation examines the phenomenon of the revival of the aesthetics of transparency in architecture since the 1990s, when the expression of regional and phenomenological aspects has been replaced by a modern, abstract and ethereal language. This revival has been associated with the development of new digital technologies and with post-industrial capitalism, producing dematerialized and unstable urban structures which are independent of their physical construction. Such changes would have rendered the classical tradition paradigms of solidity, functionality and beauty obsolete. The tendency towards the disappearance of the substantial qualities of architecture and the consequent loss of phenomenological references has brought us back to the question of dwelling. The aesthetics of transparency has been associated with the Enlightenment and it presupposes clarity of objects and emancipation of the subject. However, around 1910, it produced a sense of ambiguity due to the rupture with the concept of Euclidean space. Such a rupture may have been promoted both by the scientific discoveries that unified the dimensions of time and space, and by the dissemination of cinematographic aerial images. These images portrayed the topological space and presented a fragmented reality without perspective. The conception of topological space has also been associated with the feelings of anguish and uprooting of the modern human being. The expression of this pathology in the avant-garde arts has been criticized for fomenting the disarticulation of the political engagement through a method that would promote the loss of a complete vision of reality. Wilhelm Worringer has allegedly developed the method from the notion of the Will to Art expressed as an urge to abstraction, which is related to the concept of topological space. The present study verified that such a change in the conception of space leads to a literal and phenomenal reformulation of the concept of transparency, which is characterized in the arts by the representation of multiple points of view, spatial interpenetration and loss of depth. Phenomenal transparency is nowadays associated with a paranoid space, which is developed with the contribution of digital technology in spatial terms and the transformation of bodies according to their connection with virtual reality. Cybernetic technology may be determining a new kind of expression of alienation of the notion of transparency, which we consider to be abject. The early moderns have associated transparency with the expression of Japan-ness, which has been described as essentially interactive. Here we verify some of the Japanese contributions due to their local qualities. Our object of study is the Sendai Mediatheque (2001), by Toyo Ito. This building takes the notion of transparency to the extreme by extending it from the facades to the hollow structures, which is considered an expression of pure space in modern abstract language. Its program is multifunctional and open to change, and the community and other institutional members are involved with the project. Ito s work brings into question the artistic autonomy as well as the loss of social function, which is associated with the aestheticism of modern avant-gardes. / [de] Subjekts voraussetzte. Um 1910, wird es wird aber zweideutig aufgrund des Bruches mit dem Begriff des euklidischen Raums. Dieser Bruch wurde sowohl durch die wissenschaftliche Entdeckungen der Vereinheitlichung der Dimensionen von Zeit und Raum gefordert, , als auch durch die Verbreitung kinematografischer Luftbilder. Diese Bilder portratierten den topologischen Raum und prasentierten eine fragmentierte Realitat mit Perspektivverlust. Die Konzeption des topologischen Raums war auch mit den Gefuhlen der Angst und Entwurzelung des modernen Menschen verbunden. Der Ausdruck dieser Pathologie bei der kunstlerischen Avantgarde wird zur Forderung des Abbaus des politischen Engagements durch ein Verfahren kritisiert werden, die den Verlust des Sehvermogens der Gesamtheit der Wirklichkeit fordern wurden. Diese Methode soll von Wilhelm Worringer aus dem Begriff der Kunstwollen entwickelt worden sein. Sie ist durch den Abstraktionsdrang ausgedruckt, und ist auf den Begriff des topologischen Raumsbezogen. Diese Studie ergab, dass eine solche Anderung in der Gestaltung des Raumes auf die Neuformulierung des Konzepts der Transparenz von wortliches zu phanomenale fuhren wird, was in der Kunst durch mehrere Gesichtspunkte, raumlichen Dringen und Verlust der Tiefe gekennzeichnet ist. Phanomenale Transparenz wird gleichzeitig mit paranoidem Raum assoziiert, der mit dem Beitrag der digitalen Technologie in raumlicher Hinsicht und der Mutation von Korpern entsprechend ihrer Verbindung mit virtueller Realität entwickelt wird. Die kybernetische Technologie wurde einen neuen Ausdruck der Entfremdung und die Entfaltung des Begriffs der Transparenz bestimmen, was wir als abjekt bezeichnen. Transparenz wurde in der Modernitat mit Japan-heit verbunden. Ihr interaktiven Modus wurde in der Geschichte demonstriert. Wir uberprufen in dieser Arbeit einige der japanischen Beitrage mit ihren lokalen Qualitaten. Unser Untersuchungsobjekt ist das Gebaude fur die Mediathek in Sendai (2001), von Toyo Ito. Die Mediathek nimmt den Begriff der Transparenz zum Extrem, da ihre Fassaden sich an den hohlen Strukturen erweitert. Diese Strukturen sind ein Ausdruck des reinen Raumes in der modernen abstrakten Sprache. Die Mediathek ist multifunktional und veranderungsfahig, und die Gemeinschaft ist am Projekt beteiligt. Das Werk von Toyo Ito stellt in Frage die kunstlerische Autonomie als Verlust der sozialen Funktion entsprechen, die mit dem Asthetizismus der modernen Avantgarde verbunden ist.