3.2 THECONDITION OFARTTODAYWhat, then, does art today look like from a Hegelian point of view?
After what has been said concerning Hegel’s thesis about the end of art,
this is an open question. Hegel never claimed that there is some kind of
inner teleology or some mysterious necessity that drives art to its
inevitable end. As we have seen, he even explicitly denies that there is
reason to think there is any such inevitable end. However, this does not
preclude that art might come to an end for different, external, reasons.
No practice or institution has an inbuilt guarantee against corruption or
decline. What is more, there is reason to worry about the condition of
contemporary art from a Hegelian perspective.
A frequent complaint is that contemporary art is unintelligible. But
this is not quite true. Our problem with art today is not a problem of
understanding. We understand contemporary art perfectly well. We
know how to look at an abstract painting or a ready-made. We are
acquainted with twelve-tone and serial music, with micro-interval scales
and with the possibilities of electronic sound production. We know how
to read and interpret a stream of consciousness novel or a fragmented
poem and how to deal with the mind-twisting techniques of narration
that are typical of a David Lynch movie. We hardly have any fundamen-
tal problems understanding contemporary art. On the contrary, many
people find it easier to understand a Jackson Pollock painting or a novel
by James Joyce than a painting by Velázquez or a song by Josquin des
Prez because they lack the relevant kind of background knowledge
about formal conventions and mythological or religious themes that is
necessary for an adequate conception of what those works of art are all
about. We even suspect that there is something in the works of Vermeer
that constantly escapes our attention even in his plainest everyday
scenes. In general, contemporary art is more accessible to us than the
works of remoter periods. Our problem seems to be rather that art is not
so importantfor us any more. The latest art is often witty, sophisticated
and even funny. Still we often have the impression that we would not
miss it should it eventually vanish. We would find it difficult to name a
recent work of art that has become an important part of our life.
Somehow, things seem to have gone worse with art since Hegel’s days.
The reason is neither a decay of artistic capacity nor a loss of creative
energy. But it is not a lack of aesthetic understanding on the side of the
audience either. The loss or lack is rather a collective matter: both artists
and audience are concerned. Just take Tom Tykwers movie Heavenas an
example of the kind of modern art I have in mind here. The film seems72 Henning Tegtmeyer