Beauty again. Second Revised Edition

Beauty again emerges as the main motive in art. In Nietzsche's conception of art beauty is not just an aesthetic category but plays a much more fundamental role - it is the main and the only criterion of truth.While beauty has in the last several decades been denied, rejected, and forbidden in our cultural society, it nonetheless re-appears now as the constitutive value in contemporary art - although quietly and not as an end in itself (as is indeed inherent to beauty).Rediscovering beauty is crucial also (and perhaps primarily) in the context of the possible (political) manipulation that art can be easily subjected to - as Plato forewarned us right at the birth of the mimetic arts - which can result in spiritual, political, and ethical corruption that today as much as ever poisons the cultural and public life of our society - and where beauty alone stands as the measure distinguishing truth from falsity.

Autorentext

Karolina Dolanská a obtenu son doctorat en histoire de l'art à l'Université Charles de Prague en 2013. Elle est titulaire d'un M.A. en histoire de l'art, d'un M.A. en sociologie et d'un M.A. en études libérales. Actuellement, elle enseigne l'histoire de l'art et est titulaire de la chaire d'études en arts visuels à l'Université anglo-américaine de Prague.

Klappentext

Beauty again emerges as the main motive in art. In Nietzsche s conception of art beauty is not just an aesthetic category but plays a much more fundamental role it is the main and the only criterion of truth.While beauty has in the last several decades been denied, rejected, and forbidden in our cultural society, it nonetheless re-appears now as the constitutive value in contemporary art although quietly and not as an end in itself (as is indeed inherent to beauty).Rediscovering beauty is crucial also (and perhaps primarily) in the context of the possible (political) manipulation that art can be easily subjected to as Plato forewarned us right at the birth of the mimetic arts which can result in spiritual, political, and ethical corruption that today as much as ever poisons the cultural and public life of our society and where beauty alone stands as the measure distinguishing truth from falsity.