Günther Anders: Man as a picture maker

This volume contains previously unpublished writings and hardly known texts of the philosopher, writer and disputatious intellectual Günther Anders (1902-1992) on art and film. The writings date from the 1920s and 1930s, from Anders` time during his exile in Paris (1933-36) and the USA (1936-50), especially from his time in Hollywood (1939-43), as well as from the post-war period up to the 1950s. In his analysis and commentaries on Weimar cinema, on sound film and Hollywoods film production, in his interpretations of works of art from the Louvre in Paris, in his diary notes on Italian Renaissance art and his trenchant portraits of artists from Rubens to Goya, Anders proves himself to be a phenomenologically trained aesthetician and a media philosopher with an affinity for art. His writings show a thematic breadth and variety of genres (academic essays, dialogues, drafts for radio plays) which is characteristic of Anders` work and his way of thinking. Anders writings on art and film from the author`s estate are being published and edited for the first time and will be made accessible to academic research within this edition. They are not only an important source for art and cultural studies, but also put a new complexion on Anders` oeuvre, in particular on his famous criticism of mass media from the first volume of his main work The Outdatedness of Man from 1956 (The World as a Phantom and Matrix). The writings selected for this volume were carefully edited and annotated by the editors Reinhard Ellensohn and Kerstin Putz. A comprehensive afterword provides the necessary background information on Günther Anders` work and his biography. The volume is published as part of the series of selected works of Günther Anders at C.H. Beck publishers, Munich.