E. H. Gombrich's Adoption of the Formula form Follows Function: A Case of Mistaken Identity?

E. H. Gombrich's Adoption of the Formula form Follows Function: A Case of Mistaken Identity? This article is a longer note on what is a minor problem in the oeuvre of a great art historian. Its theme is E. H. Gombrich's use of the formula form follows function as the summary of his commonsense approach to the problem of style change. Although I am not sure how interesting this inquiry is in an art historical context, from the perspective of my own field of design history and of modernist design theory, Gombrich's adoption of the formula constitutes an intriguing problem.

[1]  Henry Petroski,et al.  Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering , 1994 .

[2]  Bryan Lawson,et al.  What designers know , 2018, The Design Student’s Journey.

[3]  K. Popper.  The Poverty of Historicism , 1959 .

[4]  H. W. Janson,et al.  History of art : a survey of the major visual arts from the dawn of history to the present day , 1963 .

[5]  Ernst Gombrich,et al.  The Sense of Order: A Study in the Psychology of Decorative Art , 1979 .

[6]  Mark Gelernter.  Sources of Architectural Form: A Critical History of Western Design Theory , 1995 .

[7]  E. Gombrich,et al.  The Essential Gombrich Selected Writings on Art and Culture , 1996 .

[8]  Louis H. Sullivan.  The autobiography of an idea , 1949 .

[9]  Eugene S. Ferguson.  Elegant Inventions: The Artistic Component of Technology , 1978 .

[10]  M. H. Abrams,et al.  Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature , 1972 .

[11]  Susan Lambert.  Form Follows Function , 1995 .

[12]  Henry Petroski,et al.  The Evolution of Useful Things , 1992, Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems.

[13]  Ernst Gombrich,et al.  The Uses of Images: Studies in the Social Function of Art and Visual Communication , 1999 .

[14]  B. C. Brolin.  Flight of Fancy: The Banishment and Return of Ornament , 1985 .

[15]  William R. Taylor,et al.  Form and Function: Remarks on Art by Horatio Greenough , 1949 .

[16]  Christopher Alexander.  Notes on the Synthesis of Form , 1964 .

[17]  E. Gombrich,et al.  The Essential Gombrich , 1996 .

[18]  Adrian Forty,et al.  Objects of desire , 1986 .

[19]  E. Gombrich.  Meditations On a Hobby Horse and Other Essays On the Theory of Art , 1971 .

[20]  J. Crook.  The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post-modern , 1987 .

[21]  E. Gombrich.  The Preference for the Primitive: Episodes in the History of Western Taste and Art , 2002 .

[22]  Jan Michl,et al.  On Seeing Design as Redesign: An Exploration of a Neglected Problem in Design Education , 2002 .