Redemption through Art 91Wagner had conspired with Mikhail Bakunin in Dresden and had par-
ticipated in street fights. After the uprisings had been suppressed, he fled
to Switzerland, where he wrote an essay entided "Art and Revolution."
Nietzsche reacted to this essay by exclaiming: "Down with all art that
does not by its very nature urge on to the revolution of society and the
renewal and unity of the people!" (8,218).
Wagner's "Art and Revolution" laid the foundations for his project on
the Nibelungen. Using the perspective of early socialist anticapitalism, he
contrasted the idealized culture of the ancient Greek polis with the cul-
tural situation of modern bourgeois society. In the Greek polis, Wagner
contended, collective and individual interests coalesced, as did the pub-
lic and private spheres. Art was a truly public affair, an event that
exposed people to the meaning and principles of their life as a commu-
nity. In the modern era, by contrast, this public aspect of art no longer
exists. The public arena has been reduced to a market, and art has suc-
cumbed to the pressures of commercialization and privatization. Art is
being marketed and sold as a commodity like any other product. Artists,
in turn, are now producing art purely for the sake of profit. This is a
scandalous process, since art, which is the expression of human creativ-
ity, ought to possess inherent value. The "slavery" of capitalism has
stripped art of its dignity and reduced it to a means to an end, rendering
art an instrument of entertainment for the masses and a sumptuous
indulgence for the rich. At the same time, art is being privatized in the
same measure "as the public spirit is frittered away in a thousand egois-
tic directions." Only superficial originality remains. Those who want to
stand out have to differentiate themselves from their competition. Art
does not answer to a higher truth but is intent only on "developing inde-
pendendy as a solitary and egoistic enterprise" (Wagner, Denken 132).
Wagner took the view that the corruption of society has also cor-
rupted art. Without a revolution in society, art will be unable to find its
way back to its true essence. The individual artist has no need to wait
for a revolution, however. Artists can work toward the emancipation of
society by initiating the task of liberation in their own domain. Art can