Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas
Today’s topic will be focused on “Mnemosyne Atlas” in general what is an atlas and how Aby Warburg’s Atlas is conceived and reflected throughout the art history.
I will try to interpret the Warburg’s Atlas around these three questions:
How Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas managed to establish a connection with ancient art and images from contemporary life such as advertisements ?
How art history can connect to images from advertising and the media world ?
How Warburg’s Atlas allows to have psychological and anthropological values that grasps the attention over the centuries ?
Mnemosyne Atlas serves as a cognitive tool that allows to understand the values of collective memory through pictorial art atlas. It is named as an “Atlas”, normally used as in positive scientific framework, here integrated in an art base. It is a collection of photographic images and advertisements, all Warburg’s own collection and library. The project started conducting in 1924 and left unfinished at the time of his death in 1929. It consists of 63 panels with 971 items that each carry out its own thesis. Each panel demonstrated the technological advances and innovations featuring both ancient art and contemporary works of his time. It’s crucial how Warburg is persistent in expressing both dimensions of art history on one frame, opening an eye for the viewer to realize the discourses on culture, migration and art.
Each panel carries a symbolic and intellectual accumulation beginning from the art and culture of western antiquity through Renaissance and up to his day. For this reason, the notion “atlas” is a significant term that provides the deeper background. The resonance of contemporary aspect and images are both highlights the importance of photography; the movement and transformation of the images are prominent for his project. The use of photography and its link with digital archives and images are the key element of the project. In other words, the importance of photography being able to capture the moments, or action allows Warburg to create a collective memory of past and his time. He both shed light on past and highlighted his time.
He is not creating a collage or photomontage he is creating his own pictorial map.
His Mnemosyne Atlas is much different than his Geburtstagsatlas [Birthday Atlas], 1937.
