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the most authentic art is modernist art which reflects in its own fragmentation the fragmentation of society.

What is the difference between Adorno's 'fragmentation' and post-modern art's fragmentation (which the article says high modernists like Adorno are opposed to)? Why or how is it that modernist art can reflect social fragmentation and post modern art cannot?

Does the answer have any bearing on what the "truth" of art is? I ask because I'm unsure what "truth" in art is, but assume that, with fragmentation, it is not representational.

  • Berthold Brecht: never convey anything positive about capitalism, vs. Marcuse: make art "as if" the "Messiah" or Utopia was in being already. G. Lukacs realism (Courbet, Balzac); he arrived at this on his own I think but it also became the Party position, Soviet realism. I think Adorno would also agree that nothing positive could be made. He would be opposed to any type of instrumentalism. – Gordon Jun 17 '19 at 22:06
  • There is one other thing I thought of. To the extent Postmodernist art became "Kitsch-like" (too easy to digest) this would be a problem for Adorno, I think. https://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism/terms/kitsch.html As I mentioned previously, there is a lot written by Adorno on Art and Aesthetics, and a lot written on Adorno and this subject. – Gordon Jun 18 '19 at 04:16
  • Perhaps you have already read this book from Verdi Press? "Aesthetics and Politics" https://www.versobooks.com/books/127-aesthetics-and-politics Jameson wrote the afterword to the book. But the writings of Adorno here do not encompass his entire career. || Fredric Jameson "Postmodernism". https://www.amazon.com/Postmodernism-Cultural-Capitalism-Post-Contemporary-Interventions/dp/0822310902 I have not read Jameson's book. – Gordon Jun 18 '19 at 04:42
  • "No. 56, Spring ... A Marxism for t... JOURNAL ARTICLE A Marxism for the Postmodern? Jameson's Adorno" https://www.jstor.org/stable/488333?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents I bring Jameson into the conversation because he was able to make this bridge to Postmodernism. – Gordon Jun 18 '19 at 05:16
  • i've read jameson (didn't quite click) and perhaps even that book, not sure. thanks for commenting @Gordon –  Jun 18 '19 at 23:43

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