The dialectics of life and art

[The aesthetization of life & the pragmatization of art]

Life vs. art It has often been suggested that life is more important than art.    The primacy of life Some artists and philosophers deprecate the realm of art because of its aesthetic limitations. They maintain that the beautiful and the sublime are better experienced outside of the art-context – in our perception of the mind, of nature, or of the world at large.    The beauty of the soul      The experience of living      The aesthetics of reality  Life is art Some artists and philosophers entertain a very broad notion of art, which encompasses all of human life. They observe that all behaviour is unavoidably expressive, or that any activity can be carried out with conscious creative intent.       Everyone is an artist Art is life Many artists feel that their life and their person partake in the aesthetic aura of their artworks. For some of them, the artist or his life is the only or ultimate artwork.   Dandyism   The artist's life   Living as an art performance   A life as an art object   The artist as an art object Life shall be art Some artists and social reformers aim for a society where art is not a specialized sector anymore, and everyone can be an artist. Some artists and philosophers call for a radical transformation of the nature of art; they envisage a future when art will encompass all of life. Some prophesy that art will be the ultimate religion, creating universal mystic harmony.   Everyone shall be an artist   Art shall encompass life   Art shall be the universal religion