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Only in the modern period has art come to be seen as an activity different
from all others and guided by values and standards proper to itself.
This emphasis on what is different about art underlines its special value,
but has also led to the question whether art is not therefore irrelevant
to the rest of life. This
is not just a theoretical question, since art is for the most part isolated
from the interests and experiences of most people in modern societies.
After establishing the theoretical and historical context in which this
dilemma arises, we will discuss modernism as in part a response to it.
We will examine modernism as an attempt to assert the distinctive value of art while also asserting that it has more than a purely aesthetic importance. We will look at works and debates over art in a number of fields and consider whether such a response has proven to be viable or whether the apparent demise of modernism has not signaled the truth of Hegel's claim that art is, at least for us, "a thing of the past." |