The Power of Art

by Markus Gabriel

We live in an era of aesthetics. Art has become both pervasive and powerful - it is displayed not only in museums and galleries but also on the walls of corporations and it is increasingly fused with design. But what makes art so powerful, and in what does its power consist?

According to a widespread view, the power of art - its beauty - lies in the eye of the beholder. What counts as art appears to be a function of individual acts of evaluation supported by powerful institutions. On this account, the power of art stems from a force that is not itself aesthetic, such as the art market and the financial power of speculators. Art expresses, in a disguised form, the power of something else - like money - that lies behind it. In one word, art has lost its autonomy.

In this short book, Markus Gabriel rejects this view. He argues that art is essentially uncontrollable. It is in the nature of the work of art to be autonomous to such a degree that the art world will never manage to overpower it. Ever since the cave paintings of Lascaux, art has taken hold of the human mind and implemented itself in our very being. Thanks to the emergence of art we became human beings, that is, beings who lead their lives in light of an image of the human being and its position in the world and in relation to other species. Due to its structural, ontological power, art itself is and remains radically autonomous. Yet, this power is highly ambiguous, as we cannot control its unfolding.

In this book, a leading proponent of New Realism applies this philosophical perspective to art to create a new aesthetic realism.

Genres: Art, Philosophy

91 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 4, 2020

About the author

Markus Gabriel was born in 1980 and studied in Heidelberg, Lisbon and New York. Since 2009 he has held the chair for Epistemology at the University of Bonn; and with this appointment he became Germany's youngest philosophy professor. He is also the director of the International Center for Philosophy in Bonn.

Reviews

[Boris Farías Hunt]

Hubieron algunas partes que me costaron más porque soy un feto ingeniero y cacho casi nada de teoría del arte. Sin embargo, me pasaron cosas. Es broma, pero si quieres no es broma.

[Tamara]

El autor recurre a ejemplos sencillos que hacen mucho más fácil la comprensión de las ideas que quiere transmitir.

Me encantó! Lo dejé lleno de post-its jiji

[bells]

me ha encantado, el autor pone ejemplos sencillos a lo largo del libro que te hacen comprender la lectura a la perfección!! ⭐️💗

[Isabel Margarita Saieg]

muy bueno pero muy reiterativo

[Elizabeth Siddal]

Una delicia. La visión del arte que transmite es maravillosa, pero quizás lo más sorprendente de todo sea la capacidad de Markus Gabriel para expresar conceptos de tanto calado con una sencillez apabullante.

[Val Rudolphy]

Interesante teoría sobre la percepción e impacto del arte en las vidas.

[Paulina]

Una amena y breve introducción a la estética contemporánea.

[Juan David]

Me duele la cabeza pero siento calma en mi alma.

[elba¡¡]

quiero saber qué opina markus gabriel de Oppenheimer (2023)

[Jana Giles]

Read once. Going back for a second read. Briefly, there are some statements about art that seem to me to be overstatements and unsupportable. But we'll see.

[Roberto Yoed]

Propaganda idealista que niega la influencia ideológica en las obras de arte.

[Paula Acuña]

Creo que es una buena lectura para complementar a quien esta aprendiendo teoría del arte. Ayuda a explicar ideas de estética y filosofía de manera simple, y da un buen inicio.

[Valentín Serrano García]

Opúsculo esencial para entender lo que es el arte y por qué ocupa un lugar trascendental y fundamental en el horizonte de sentido humano. El arte es el más logrado de los productos mentales, psicología y religión aplicadas, ética y filosofía hecha carne, vida y poesía capaz de revolucionar el mundo.

Por cierto, si bien es cierto que puede generar debate con aquellos que esgrimen una teoría más política (marxista) e histórico-dialectica, creo que es perfectamente posible asumir que ambos polos son necesarios.

Gabriel sirve, además, como introducción a los grandes teóricos del arte, sean Warburg, Didi-Huberman, Belting, Panofsky, Heidegger o Lacan.