Avantgarde <i>und </i> Faschismus

Abstract

Summary Jean Clairs book “Die Verantwortung des Künstlers. Avantgarde zwischen Terror und Vernunft”, published in German language 1998, was immediately followed by numerous reactions, e.g. Peter Bürger, Werner Hofmann, Martin Warnke. As Nicos Hadjinicolaou however showed, Avantgarde and Modernism being blamed to be entangled with totalitarian regimes, started earlier. Jürgen Habermas, 1982, in “Die Kulturkritik der Neokonservativen in den USA und in der Bundesrepublik” also draw the attention to this kind of attitude towards Avantgarde. Following Clairs thesis it was not possible to talk about the “negative” sides of Avantgarde, because of the American policy in Europe after World War II, when Modern art became a political dogma. Only after the fall of communism it was possible to discuss this chapter of Avantgarde. The vehemence of these incriminations against Avantgarde and Modernism leads to questions about the intentions and the background: Is it possible that this debate newly confirms Habermas'thesis “technische Moderne ja, kulturelle Moderne nein”? Are we again confronted with a battle abstract versus figurative art? Platons remarks about painting in Republic 10, were often misused against abstract art, especially in the 20th century. Still hardly known is Ernst Cassirers highly differenciated essay within here, also the Hungarian contributions of the philo-sopher Mihály Polányi and Frigyes Karinthy.