November 17, 2024

The Nature of Art

"Art then is the becoming and happening of truth." 

– Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Art"

I know this quote from an essay published in 1960. The first version of the essay was a lecture given on November 13, 1935 at Freiburg i. Br, Germany. Here, truth has a double meaning: clearing and concealing. Concealed within any truth is what remains unknown. Also, the possibility of mistaking, as truth, other than what is. By setting truth into work, art discloses the nature of a historical people. It is an inexhaustible origin. Is this the nature of art? It depends on what we call art.

"Modern subjectivism, to be sure, immediately misinterprets creation, taking it as the self-sovereign subject's performance of genius." 

– Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Art"

Truth in the work of art arises from possibilities. What are the genuine possibilities for its creation that truth may become and happen? Derivative works and false pretenses disallow the becoming and happening of truth. If we are honest, the artist’s position is often romanticized. Of all pursuits, art is perhaps the most romantic, and artist a misnomer to insinuate the ideal. In this way, extrinsic motivation dissembles truth by a pretending. Without intention and preparation, the idealized work of art, in reality, is a mere accident. Art so primitively conceived is far too broad to consider its nature. But what is meant here by intention and preparation? Preparation is making way for consideration. The boundary of intention is the consideration of possibilities, which engages the intellect. Therefore, the work of art in its self-sufficient way is created by intentional activity that is set off and set apart from the thoughtless act of whoever might be crowned artist. Likewise, the intellect is engaged by the sensory experience of art. The work of art cannot be a residue of the audacious activity of artists because the becoming and happening of truth is active in the work.

In order to make predictions, science and medicine are staid in attempts to ascertain natural phenomena after the fact. The domain of the artist, philosopher, and engineer, conversely, is to reach forward and carry a historical people into a reality transformed by the truth in the work. Innovation that exists only as an idea is created from the repose of a realized truth that is yet to be disclosed; a yearning for what is absent in the world. An artist is because of this conflict. Art as an origin is consequently a liberating call to service.

"The truth that discloses itself in the work can never be proved or derived from what went before. What went before is refuted in its exclusive reality by the work. What art founds can therefore never be compensated and made up for by what is already present and available." 

– Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Art"

How people work, broadly speaking, is different from any other species. Whether you are a ride share driver or a corporate CEO, how you do what you do is based on a society with a complex economic system and advanced technological infrastructure. However, why people work insofar as work satisfies mere bodily needs—putting food on the table, clothes on the back, and a roof over the head—is no different than any other animal, in a word: primitive. Although food and shelter are undoubtedly the survival needs of any animal, does work contribute to culture? Well, consumption, no matter how decadent and excessive, is often mistaken for engaging with culture. For example, selecting a pair of shoes from 50 different options that all do functionally the same thing. A three course gourmet dinner does not negate the fact that nourishment is the objective reason why we eat. Yet the brands people buy send a message to others. People form an opinion of someone who wears New Balance, Converse, or Nike; drives a Porsche, a pickup truck, or a Subaru. Consumer goods say nothing distinct about the owner because, apart from being mass produced, the idea is not self-generated. Ideas take a mind to imagine. The embodiment of an idea in the work that rings with truth is a possibility that only humanity has achieved.

Authentic possibility is free from extrinsic motives. Neither the sale of art nor its critical or popular reception are genuine intentions for its creation. Similar to the intentional activity that sets truth into work, humanity is set off by intellectual achievement in conflict with the primitive needs of the body. Is any society great that requires its citizens to work more than one job to meet their survival needs and still be food or housing insecure? This question is the challenge that artists are facing. The nature of an artist is the strife of laying truth to bare. Clearing a space in the mind for authentic ideas to emerge, as an origin. Originality is not derived from or imitative of what came before. Originality is founded in the new. But what is originality if not mere novelty? What is new if not a wayward last episode? Intentional activity is an authority that renounces all influences. The execution of the idea in the work that rings with truth is an elevation of human nature.

According to Heidegger, the work of art sets up a strife between earth and world where the world of an historical people is grounded in the truth that is laid bare using the natural resources of the earth. Similar to the strife between earth and world, the human intellect is grounded in the body. Likewise, music is grounded in the silence out of which it arises. In each case the ring of truth emerges from concealment as an origin.

Adam De Lucia has a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Fine Arts from Hofstra University where he studied art history and graduated cum laude. While attending, he was invited to participate in an art history senior seminar, teach as an assistant to the professor in Intermediate Web Design and Intermediate Motion Graphics, and design posters and postcards to promote student and professional exhibits, including the annual fine arts student show. In New York City, he attended hundreds of gallery and museum exhibits, art openings, and concerts at celebrated jazz venues, where many of his current musical relationships began.