Austrian-born British art historian whose making-vs-matching framework shaped McLuhan's media thinking in the years before The Gutenberg Galaxy. Cameron places Gombrich in the Washington art-lecture series that — alongside Maritain and Gilson — turned McLuhan toward art theory just before "the medium is the message."
Across the dialogues
McLuhan turned onto Gombrich by the Washington art lectures — the threshold of "the medium is the message"
McLuhan was turned onto Gombrich (and Ivins) by the Washington art lectures — the threshold from which "the medium is the message" followed.
"Just a year or two after Gilson and Maritain had lectured in Washington on art and turned McLuhan on to Gombrich and to Ivins and to other people in the world of art theory, he then comes up with the idea of medium as the message."
Making vs. matching — the seven-year art-theory reading behind The Gutenberg Galaxy
McLuhan's "making and matching" came out of a sustained 1950s reading of art theorists, with Gombrich in the same Washington series.
"At the time he came up with all of this making and matching stuff, he was reading a whole series of art theoreticians."
Gombrich's making-vs-matching distinction is the analytic spine of the art-theory reading that stands behind The Gutenberg Galaxy.
"They were showing that it was possible to come up with stability through making."
Connections
Gombrich's making-vs-matching distinction is the analytic spine of the art-theory reading behind The Gutenberg Galaxy.
McLuhan was turned onto Gombrich by the same Washington art lectures Maritain and Gilson gave.