Lukács’s brief ministry placed art control in artists’ own hands

Evidence

As Deputy Commissar for Culture and Education, Lukács attempted to make artists independent of the sale or non-sale of their works, and so to overcome the commodity character of works of art. The control of art was put in the hands of artists. A music directorate was established, for example, which consisted of Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály and Ernst von Dohnányi. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 317

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School’s later critique of the culture industry and to Adorno’s interest in Bartók’s modernism — the composers here prefigure the school’s canon of aesthetic autonomy. — connects to: Lukács tried to abolish the commodity character of art by state control — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 317