Art’s continued existence testifies to a paradox that grounds all beauty

Evidence

A dialectical, or “immanent,” critique of art, Adorno argued, “takes seriously the principle that it is not ideology in itself which is untrue but rather its pretension to correspond to reality.” 35 One way in which art might offer a “true” foretaste of the future society was in its harmonious reconciliation of form and content, function and expression, subjective and objective elements. … “A successful work, according to immanent criticism, is not one which resolves objective contradictions in a spurious harmony, but one which expresses the idea of harmony negatively by embodying the contradictions, pure and uncompromised, in its innermost structure.” ” In other words, until social contradictions were reconciled in reality, the utopian harmony of art must always maintain an element of protest. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 549 (#expands, via linked claim)

For immanent criticism, a successful work ‘is not one which resolves objective contradictions in a spurious harmony, but one which expresses the idea of harmony negatively by embodying the contradictions, pure and uncompromised, in its inner-most structure. Confronted with this kind of work, the verdict “mere ideology” loses its meaning.’ — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 51 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Art redeems existence precisely by not striving to attain being; Art expresses utopian harmony negatively by embodying contradictions unresolved — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 549; A successful artwork embodies contradictions without falsely resolving them — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 51 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Art expresses utopian harmony negatively by embodying contradictions unresolved #expands (0.82) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 549
• Art redeems existence precisely by not striving to attain being #complicates (0.80)
• A successful artwork embodies contradictions without falsely resolving them #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 51
• Beautiful art can transfigure atrocity and thus justify suffering aesthetically #complicates (0.78)