Abstract

This paper approaches the phenomenon of art from a contemporary perspective. It discusses art as spiritual modality of expression which testifies to man’s specific being-in-the-world. It also analyzes the idea of artwork in reference to its aesthetic, social, and historical determinations, while keeping in mind the problematization of the essence, content, and finality of art. In this context, the paper examines two significant aesthetic guidelines: aestheticism or the movement “l’art pour l’art,” founded on the cult of beauty as a supreme value, and the deaestheticization of art, a negativist contemporary movement that contests the aesthetic and artistic tradition. Finally, the paper holds that, contrary to Hegel’s prophecy on the “death” of art, the aesthetic experience shows that contemporary art continues to assert itself and to diversify itself with an impressive energy. Based on this background, the phenomenon of de-aestheticization is a challengewhich gives new impulses to the evolution of authentic art, spurring man’s ability to perceive affectively and to understand reality in new ways, adding to it, asNietzsche said, a metaphysical factor in order to transcend it.