Abstract

In my paper, I argue that we have to reconsider what is meant by aesthetic objectivity in order not to lose the validity of our concept of ‘art’ and the differentiation in ‘arts’. We are to reflect upon the turn to an aesthetic praxis that not only bids farewell to the object but to all forms of invalid objectifications. By consideration of Hegel’s theory of art, I argue that the recent ‘de-artification’ should be understood as art’s immanent and dynamic work-in-progress upon its own objectivity. I argue that the dissolution of the borders between the fine arts is directly related to a process of developing different objectifications of aesthetic objectivity. The formation of a new, transformed understanding of aesthetic objectivity that no longer coincides with the aesthetic object leads us to cognize new connections and relations in the arts that ground this objectivity. I argue that Hegel’s theory, which is usually characterized as binding aesthetic objectivity to the aesthetic object, has the potential to break with precisely such binding. Hegel’s ideas on aesthetic objectivity imply that the stable and closed object has the potential to lead us to an understanding of a self-consuming and self-annulling objectivity.