Image journeys: the Warburg Institute and a British art history

Abstract

After its arrival in London in 1933, the Warburg Institute organised a number of large-scale photographic exhibitions. These displays introduced the innovative image-led methodology developed in Hamburg prior to the Institute's emigration. In doing so, the exhibitions promoted the integration of the "foreign" scholars who had left Central Europe fleeing the holocaust. But they also served another purpose: in times of increasing political and human crises, the assembled images argued for a common European culture based on humanistic values for the education of the general public. A number of studies are dedicated to the influence of Aby Warburg and his wider circle on the Anglophone humanities in general. However, the lasting impact of the exhibitions, developed in the Institute's early years in London, on British Art History and the British public has so far been neglected. Image Journeys makes hitherto unpublished archival materials accessible that speak to the historiographic and political significance of this unique and pioneering exhibition practice.