Welcome to The Gestaltist.art, which is still under construction. This website has been established to explicate a particular approach toward visual art, or more exactly, the particular mental state involved in approaching it.
This website is designed to function as a journal; it contains information about a particular approach to art education. This information includes not only German language sources translated into the English language, which were never before available, but also biographic information on the personalities who developed this approach.
These individuals include Conrad Fiedler, Adolf von Hildebrand, and Hans von Mareès, who all provided a philosophical grounding for this attitude, of which we will speak. Gustaf Britsch provided the practical basis for this approach and was strongly influenced and received inspiration in his work from his teachers and mentors, the art historian Heinrich Wöllflin and the philosopher Hans Cornelius. Gustaf Britsch was also assisted in his work by his student and intellectual heir Egon Kornmann. In Germany, Gustaf Britsch’s work was carried on by Hans Herrmann, who founded the Gestalt Archive, which is still active in the Bavarian capitol. A Egon Kornmann’s student , Gerhard Gollwitzer, a secondary school teacher known for his work with advanced students, is included in this list because of his work with adolescents. The so-called Britsch approach to art education was brought to the United States by Henry Schaefer-Simmern,who taught at the University of California in Berkeley and St. Mary’s College of Caliornia. Rudolf Arnheim, who is also represented, was an intellectual colleague and interlocutor with Schaefer-Simmern on topics concerning the theory of visual art, art education, and Gestalt psychology.
This approach or attitude toward visual art is also reflected in the teaching approach employed by its practitioners. This approach is student-centered in that it begins with and concentrates on the native abilities of the student. It is designed to draw out and aid in the unfolding of these abilities. The Britsch approach to art education is far from rigid as will be seen in the work of the students of Hans Herrmann, Gerhard Gollwitzer, and Henry Schaefer-Simmern.
Since this is a website about visual art, we find ourselves obliged to include as much visual material as possible. In this regard, we would like to thank the Gestalt Archive for access to over 50,000 examples of student work. This website also includes a special section dedicated to the work of the archive. We would specifically like to thank the archive director, Ms. Christel Hiltmann, for her support and encouragement.
The cursory reader may blanch at the list of philosophers among the personalities mentioned above. References to theory may also cause potential readers to close these pages. The current postmodern approach eschews any mention of theory, but upon a closer reading, the basis of this approach to art education will be found to exist on empirical evidence. Hans von Mareès and Adolf von Hildebrand were practicing and successful artists in their own right. Gustaf Britsch observed and questioned practicing artists and used student colleagues as “guinea pigs” for his theoretical work. We ask the kind reader to “suspend disbelief” and judge the work on these pages on their own strength.
The Editor