It's Not Easy Being Green: The Failure of Abstract Art in Gottfried Keller's Der grüne Heinrich

Abstract

This article revisits the art and artists of Gottfried Keller’s Der grüne Heinrich, a novel concluding with a conservative stance against artistic innovation, in order to explore how pre–twentieth-century literary fiction advanced the development of unconventional modes of artistic expression such as abstract art. Through comparative analysis of two fictional artworks described in the novel, I argue that Keller’s nineteenth-century bildungsroman preconditions radical twentieth-century art forms by establishing the self-awareness of the artist as necessary for the creation of unorthodox artworks. This investigation of cross-medial exchange emphasizes the cultural work performed by literature in furthering and fostering innovative visual media.