Aesthetic expression is the non-subjective impress made on the subject

Evidence

The expression of works of art is the non-subjective element of the subject, not so much its own expression (Ausdruck), but rather the impression (Abdruck) it makes. There is nothing as expressive as the eyes of animalsapeswhich objectively seem to lament the fact that they are not human. … This ambivalence is registered in every genuinely aesthetic experience, and is incomparably expressed in Kant’s description of the sense of the sublime as being something that trembles within itself between nature and freedom. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2738

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Adorno’s distinction between Ausdruck and Abdruck, a key technical distinction in Aesthetic Theory.
• BMF: The uncanny expressiveness of animals’ eyes lamenting their non-humanity evokes White Noise’s recurring meditation on animal gazes and the terror of death — an oblique resonance across domains.
• XREF: connects to: Art’s expression is the non-subjective trace within the subject — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2737; Perceived qualities exist objectively as the thing itself, not as subjective effects — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 594

Broader Connections

• Perceived qualities exist objectively as the thing itself, not as subjective effects #contradicts (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 594