author
Ernst Cohn-Wiener
1882–1941
A wide-ranging German art historian, he helped open up Islamic, Jewish, and Asian art to new audiences in the early 20th century. His writing combined scholarly depth with a gift for making art history feel vivid and connected across cultures.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Tilsit in 1882, Ernst Cohn-Wiener studied art history, archaeology, and philosophy in Berlin and Heidelberg. He began his career with work on European medieval art, then broadened his interests dramatically, becoming known for writing and teaching on Jewish art, Islamic art, and the arts of Asia.
He taught in Berlin at institutions including the Humboldt Academy and became especially important as an interpreter of non-Western art for German readers. His research on Islamic architecture and his travels in Central Asia in the 1920s helped shape his later work, which is remembered for its unusually wide scope and curiosity.
After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, he left Germany, later settling in New York, where he died in 1941. Although not as widely known today as some of his contemporaries, his work stands out for treating the art of many cultures as part of a shared human story.