Category: The art of commitment (Research paper 2007)

Art is always political. It exists within a context and uses elements that have a historical, political and social dimension.

Most artists through history have produced art that has been homogenous, conformist and compliant.

The arts world is a reflection of its surroundings. Academics and artists have internalised the needs of the system that they live in.

It is essential for people to distinguish between the insignificant and the essential. But in the current context it is very difficult to discriminate.

Our advanced capitalist market economy is based on the relationship between supply and demand and on specialised production of goods and knowledge.

In Plato’s and Aristotle’s time, art had a social function. Today we are used to art for art’s sake.

It has to be possible to distinguish between what is art and what is not for any theory of art to exist.

In The Art of Commitment I defend that the function of art is political and that it is used to serve the interests of the market economy.