L’OCCHIO E LO SPIRITO DELL’UTOPIA Ernst Bloch, Carl Einstein e l’anacronismo delle immagini

Aim of this paper is to investigate the question of the ornament in Ernst Bloch’s work Spirit of Utopia, and in particular the remarks contained in reference to Carl Einstein’s Negerplastik a short text written by the German-Jewish art historian. The focus of these aesthetic reflections of Bloch is the theme of the anachronism of images, as it appears in the context of the Negerkunst, and as it appears in the avant-garde artistic movements of the early Twentieth century. The topic of anachronism is a fundamental trait in both Bloch’s and Einstein’s readings of African art, as well as being an ever-present subject in Bloch and one that lays the groundwork for his whole thinking, including his concept of “utopia”.