Art loses its critical friction when it becomes purely self-referential.
Evidence
The fact that (works of art) seem to be growing more indifferent cannot be explained merely by a decrease in their social effectiveness. There is some evidence that the works lose their coefficient of friction, an element essential to them, when they turn towards their own pure immanence: that they are also becoming more indifferent in themselves. The fact that radically abstract paintings can be hung in official reception rooms without causing offence does not, however, justify any restoration of a representationalism that is pleasant a priori, even if Che Guevara is selected for the purposes of reconciliation with the object. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2731
Categorization
- QUESTION: Adorno’s ‘coefficient of friction’ as a criterion for art’s critical force is worth chasing — how does it connect to his larger theory of aesthetic autonomy vs. social effect?
- XREF: connects to: Authentic art simultaneously mirrors and rejects its historical moment. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 882; Art capitulates when it purges all trace of its pre-artistic, vulgar roots — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2721; Art’s autonomy internalizes the very social domination it claims to escape — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 296 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Contemporary art exhausted stylistic innovation and collapsed into speculation and irony
#exemplifies(0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 725 - Art’s autonomy internalizes the very social domination it claims to escape
#complicates(0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 296 - Even modernist art becomes infected by the schema of mass culture.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 30 - Capitalist commodification displaces the aesthetic value of art
#corroborates(0.75) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 69 - Society neutralizes art’s subversive force by absorbing its antagonistic content.
#complicates(0.70) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 292