Subversion and Subsidy : Contemporary Art and Aesthetics

by Rainer Rochlitz; Translated by Dafydd Roberts

• ISBN13: 9781905422715
• ISBN10: 1905422717
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2009-01-06
• Publisher: Seagull Books

Summary

Translated by Dafydd RobertsArt today is in deep crisis. Criticism seems to have abandoned any notion of evaluation, the public has been denied the possibility of understanding, and aesthetics have lost all legitimacy. Formerly, artists claimed their right to decide for themselves what counted as a work of art, thanks to the subversion of the established criteria of aesthetic judgment. But that very subversion is today the object of subsidy and support by museums and galleries, anxious to display their liberalism. A new and ambiguous game of complicity and antagonism has united artists and institutions.Yet, however much the alliance of subversion and subsidy aims to exclude it, aesthetic judgment remains a necessity. Whatever the nature of a work of art, it can only be one if the artistic quality it claims for itself can be justified and shared. As symbol it cannot be reduced to a symptom; as an object of judgment it cannot depend on simple individual preferences. Thus it is now urgent to find aesthetic arguments that pay proper attention to the internal logic of artworks, arguments that are rigorous without claiming absolute truth.In this wide-ranging and fascinating book, Rainer Rochlitz attempts to find new bases for such arguments. First published in 1994, it remains a vital contribution to today's debates about the nature of the art market.

Author Biography

Rainer Rochlitz (1946–2002) was a philosopher, esthetician and translator.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Situation

The conquestand abandonment of aesthetic sovereignty Fractures in the logic of Modernism Stages on the road to autonomy Sovereignty and inner heteronomy

Criticism's dereliction of duty Criticism, aesthetics, history of art The collapse of judgment Towards an aesthetic logic

Argument

Aesthetic rationality Between magic and reason Rationality and sovereignty The limits of aesthetic rationality

Symbol and symptom The symbolic intelligibility of singular experience Confusions Interferences

Judgments and preferences Aesthetic pragmatics Aesthetic judgment and idiosyncratic judgment The question of criteria

Aesthetic criteria Criteria of exclusion Criteria of excellence

Politics

Institutions A hegemonic taste Generalised suspicion Consequences of the institutional turn

Political strategies The public character of art and the question of political engagement Aesthetic principles and political implications The Sixties turn Conclusion The demands of the medium and their reward

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