Социологически поглед към автономията на изкуството

Abstract

The autonomy of art does not mean that from the Renaissance onwards there was a period in which art depended only on itself and on nothing else. Artists did break away from the traditional spheres of mythology, religion, and courtly canons, but they consistently and explicitly inscribed their works within the freer and broader objective structures of social communication, from immediate interpersonal communication all the way to the various forms of mass communication. Art takes on a new, completely free publicity that emphasizes the highly marketable and communicative character of the artwork and the mass character of its audience. Under the influence and support of different and even contradictory audiences, art is constantly changing its artistic form and social meaning. Considered in this way, autonomy represents a constantly changing form of socialization of art that also reaches very high, unique, and autonomous degrees of individualization of the artistic process. Within this process, the artist is now more subject to norms and rules that he freely and unconstrainedly chooses for himself and which he imposes on his imagination. But the specific characteristics of this free art must also be seen and understood as internal ciphers of a hidden external social context.