End of Art

It. Morte dell’arte, Fine dell’arte; Fr. Fin de l’art; Germ. Ende der Kunst; Span. Fin del arte. The term designates the idea or thesis that art is no longer able to fulfil its highest (metaphysical, cognitive, religious, ethico-political) role. This general idea can be, and has been, specified in different ways. Accordingly, art is no longer an adequate vehicle for the truth, nor for the presentation of the divine, nor for the embedment of moral and political principles and values, or art has become irrelevant in a largely disenchanted, prosaic, technological world; or artworks can no longer be beautiful or even distinguishable from common objects, or they are no longer autonomous insofar as they require a non-artistic perspective for their interpretation. With its many senses, the thesis, or the rejection thereof, characterizes a substantial part of the discourse on modernity starting with Hegel.