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Abstract

The article is an attempt to define the role that art plays – may/should play – in the education of modern man. The scope of this “great role of art in the life of modern man” was presented in the works of Irena Wojnar and Bogdan Suchodolski – the authors of the Polish theory of aesthetic education. For the author of the article, the important role of art lies in the fact that it breaks the inertia of our sensitivity, our perceptual patterns, the coldness of the heart. In our times it is art – or maybe only art! – that allows modern man, at least partially, to satisfy the hunger for meaning. Art is an attempt to overcome the insufficiency of our human existence. To overcome and enrich! By showing man not just what he is but what he would like to be, what he should be, art creates a truly human vision of the art of life. That art is great entertainment is another happy circumstance for aesthetic education. We love and choose art because it is simply amusing. Studies show that art is educationally attractive – especially for children and adolescents – because it is also an attractive entertainment. The power and the beauty of aesthetic education lie in the fact that it is an education which is also a noble entertainment.