The “General Science of Art”: an impossible science? A path through this almost forgotten discipline with the Czech philosopher Emil Utitz (1883-1956)

The article looks at the minorization of the “General Science of Art” (allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft), a transdisciplinary movement that represented a very fertile laboratory for art research in the first decades of the twentieth century in German-speaking countries, before being almost erased from the history of art theory. Following in the footsteps of one of its leading figures, the Prague philosopher Emil Utitz (1883–1956), the article first looks at his biography, before examining his role in the development of the General Science of Art and the process that led to its oblivion.