ADORNO ART AND SOCIETY VIII Autonomy The Truth

ADORNO: ART AND SOCIETY VIII Autonomy

The Truth of Art • Connection of the unity of truth with the multiplicity of the non-identical • Artistic truth is not a general concept • Based on particular elements, interconnections, content, technique etc. of a concrete artwork • Artwork has to achieve integrality and unity • Truth requires articulation

• The artwork highlights its contradictory moments, antagonisms are brought to the surface • By virtue of a nonrepressive synthesis of antagonisms, artworks oppose a world where antagonisms are forcibly integrated

The Autonomy of Art • Intrinsic self-sufficiency of the artwork - preservation of particularity over generality - setting its own law (i. e. the aesthetic synthesis) • Freedom of art from religious, political or other social roles • Art that is not intended to directly change political attitudes – yet often does

Commodity fetishism (Marx) • Objects in capitalism takes the form of commodity, i. e. they can be exchanged • Commodity satisfies human wants • The fact that what commodities share is the labour behind them is hidden => commodities seem like having a life of their own, apart from the human interactions that sustain them => The fetishism of commodities

Reification (Lukács) • The commodity form is the universal structuring principle for all forms of objectivity and subjectivity - not only in production, but also in social institutions (law, administration, journalism), academic disciplines • Reification is the process by which the commodity form permeates all aspects of life • Objects appear is independent determinants of human life, human beings appear to have no control over their labour power

Adorno • Artwork‘s autonomy has a social character and its social character is itself autonomous • Autonomous artworks do belong to a society where exchange has become a dominant principle of social relationships => artworks are produced and consumed in accordance with this principle - artworks hide the labour behind them and appear to have life of their own

- they appear to be superior cultural entities detached from the conditions economic production - therefore artworks cover up the problematic division of labour that enables them - artworks seem to serve no other use beyond their own existence => as such they seem to be irrational and respect for them superstitious

• By appearing to have life of their own, artworks call into question a society where nothing is allowed to be itself and everything is controlled by the exchange principle • By appearing to be detached from the conditions of economic production, artworks acquire the ability to suggest changed conditions • By appearing to be useless, artworks recall the human purposes that rationality forgets

• Art is able to challenge the social systém from within • Artworks are essential dynamic – as a field of contradictions and conflicting forces, and essentialy static – as a self-contained entity • Artwork has an internal process through which it can bring forth the surrounding social process