Art promises happiness only at the cost of illusoriness

Evidence

As distinct from philosophy, art contained a hidden promise of happiness. It achieved what negative-dialectical philosophy was striving for: that `something objective can be revealed by subjective effort’. But it could achieve this only at the cost of illusoriness. That was why every philosophy of art must at the same time be a critique of it. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2742

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the Dialectic of Enlightenment’s culture-industry pleasure theme — art’s promised happiness against the industry’s false pleasure. — connects to: Art achieves objective revelation through subjective effort only at the cost of illusoriness — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2742; Art is trapped between utopian longing and the charge of false comfort — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 66; Dissonance preserves the promise of happiness that pleasant art has falsified. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 70 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Art achieves objective revelation through subjective effort only at the cost of illusoriness #expands (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2742
• Art is trapped between utopian longing and the charge of false comfort #complicates (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 66
• Dissonance preserves the promise of happiness that pleasant art has falsified. #complicates (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 70
• Great modern art combines fragile illusion with opening to the excluded #qualifies (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2725
• Culture’s promise of happiness is equivocal because it exists only where freedom does not #qualifies (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 46