The Work of Art

The modern idea of art has been in place for about two centuries. It has concurred with two other features of modernity: that of developed capitalist economy, and that of the new democratic public sphere. This article explores some of the relationships between art, capitalism and democracy. It argues that the notion of art heralded by modern aesthetic theories mainly hinges on the epistemic form of the commodity, highlighting the interaction between a producer, a product and a consumer. A different theorizing of the work of art could, however, depart not from the market place of commodities, but from the public forum for democratic deliberation. This alternative foundation of aesthetics is delineated on the basis of the anthropological idea of the ritual and its instantiation in contemporary theories of performativity, where the work of art is seen as an affordance for social encounters as well as for individual contemplation.

现代艺术的概念已存续约两个世纪，其形成与现代性的另外两大特征同步出现：一是发达的资本主义经济，二是新型民主公共领域。本文探讨了艺术、资本主义与民主之间的若干关联。文中主张，现代美学理论所倡导的艺术观念，核心依托于商品的认识论形式，强调生产者、作品与消费者三者间的互动关系。然而，另一种艺术作品的理论建构路径，无需以商品市场为起点，转而可立足于民主审议的公共论坛。这种替代性的美学立论基础，以仪式的人类学理念为依据，并结合该理念在当代表演性理论中的具象化呈现，将艺术作品视作可为社会交往与个体沉思提供可供性的对象。