Ludwig Münz (art historian)

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Ludwig Münz (born January 6, 1889 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died March 7, 1957 in Munich ) was an Austrian art historian.

Life

Ludwig Münz was a son of the journalist Bernhard Münz (1857–1921) and Josefine Labin. The librarian Bernhard Münz and the journalist Sigmund Münz were related to him. Münz married Maria Fijala Zornig in 1937.

Münz studied law at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in 1914. Münz was a one-year volunteer in 1912 and was a reserve lieutenant in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 . Before the outbreak of war, he began to study philosophy and art history in Vienna and continued this after 1918 with Max Dvořák , who however died in 1921. At the same time he was a lecturer at the Volkshochschule 5 Vienna and at Urania . From 1922 he conducted research in Hamburg in the Warburg cultural studies library with Fritz Saxl and Erwin Panofsky ; his dissertation on Rembrandt's influence on 18th century art, submitted to the University of Hamburg , was not accepted by the Philosophical Faculty in 1923 for anti-Semitic reasons .

In 1924 he published an essay on Rembrandt and Ferdinand Bol . Münz returned to Vienna in 1926 and lived as a private scholar with the support of his family . In 1931 he re-edited The Dutch Group Portrait , an important work by Alois Riegl , and after his death published the works of Adolf Loos . At the Hohe Warte Institute for the Blind , he researched sculpture works by blind children on psychological questions of creativity and, together with Viktor Löwenfeld, organized a reorganization of art classes. Together with Ernst Garger , he re-arranged the antiques in the Vienna Museum of Decorative Arts in 1933 .

Münz was friends with Karl Kraus and Oskar Kokoschka and was an opponent of the National Socialists who were active in Austria, despite their ban in the corporate state . After the annexation of Austria in March 1938, he was able to escape Nazi persecution and came to England, after the outbreak of World War II, Münz was interned there in 1940 as an enemy alien . At the instigation of the employees of the Warburg Institute , he was released and worked on the etchings by Rembrandt and his successors. He studied painting by psychiatric patients at Maudsley Hospital in London.

After the end of the war, Münz returned to Vienna and in 1947 was appointed director of the picture gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts . His task was initially the structural reconstruction of the war-damaged building and the resumption of the exhibition, Münz published a number of new exhibition guides. In 1952 his work on Rembrandt's etchings was published. In 1955 he received the title of Austrian professor .

In 1957, Münz went to Munich to attend a Rembrandt congress at the Central Institute for Art History and suffered a fatal heart attack when he opened the discussion. His book on Pieter Bruegel's drawings was published posthumously.

Fonts (selection)

  • (Ed.): Alois Riegl : The Dutch group portrait . Vienna: State Printing Office, 1931
  • The art of Rembrandt and Goethe's vision . Leipzig: Keller, 1934
  • with Viktor Löwenfeld : Plastic works by blind people . Brno: Rohrer, 1935
  • Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna: Catalog of the reopened part of the Gemäldegalerie; Spring 1948 . Vienna: Schroll, 1948
  • Goethe's drawings and etchings . Vienna: Austrian State Printing Office, 1950
  • Rembrandt's Etchings: Reproductions of the Whole Original Etched work by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606–1669 . 2 volumes. London: Phaidon Press, 1952
  • Rembrandt . New York: Abrams 1954
    • Rembrandt . Translation by Susanne B. Milczewsky. Cologne: DuMont Schauberg, 1967
  • Bruegel drawings . Cologne: Phaidon, 1962
  • Gustav artist: The architect Adolf Loos: Presentation of his work according to groups of works. Chronolog. Catalog raisonné . Vienna: Schroll, 1964

literature

  • Münz, Ludwig , in: Ulrike Wendland: Biographical manual of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism . Munich: Saur, 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 448-451
  • NM: Dr Ludwig Münz . Burlington Magazine , December 1957, pp. 419f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Münz, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian art historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1957
Place of death Munich