The Romantic Spirit in German Art 1790-1990

The Romantic movement in art, with its emphasis on emotion, imagination and a sensitivity to nature, was at its height from the late 18th century to the mid 19th century. It has continued to influence some Western art, but in Germany it assumed a much greater significance, and has been closely linked to perceptions of national characteristics. This book, published to accompany exhibitions at the Scottish National Gallery of Art, Edinburgh, the Hayward Gallery, London, and the Alte Museum, Berlin in 1994-1995, examines the continuing engagement that German artists from Friedrich and Runge to Beuys, Kiefer and Baselitz have had with Romantic ideas over the past two centuries. A group of the world's leading scholars on German art of this period, including David Bindman, Helmut Borsch-Supan, Rudi Fuchs, Robert Rosenblum, John Gage, and Peter Vergo have contributed essays on a huge range of topics, among them the links between Romanticism and Modernism, music and the visual arts, and the impact of German Romanticism abroad. At-the heart of the book is the art itself: more than 300 paintings, drawings, woodcuts, sculptures and collages drawn from major collections around the world.