Continuity, Discontinuity, Fulguration – Philosophical Contexts of Changes in Art

Abstract

In her article, the author adopts the assumption that interpretations of changes in art, their gradual or abrupt course, depend on the comprehension of time and the conception of the subject. Changes in art and changes in esthetics do not always occur parallel to transformations in the social field. Philosophical premises are one of the basic criteria for divisions in esthetics. The study seeks to answer the question how the forming identity of modern man tries to find a new communication medium; in this case – how this is carried out by art theorists. The ob­ject of the analyses are the conceptions that describe changes in art begun by the avant-garde, considered in the broad context of the discourse of modernity. What they have in common is a specific form of identity thinking which takes on the character of a syndrome. The object of the discussion are theories that use categories of philosophical origin: fulguration and planes, continuity and discontinuity, gradualness and the leaps and bounds progression, and those related to them, for example: evolution and devolution, or a negative crisis and a positive crisis. In the context of the discussion on the subject of modernity, the first part refers to the con-ceptions of M. Wallis, S. Morawski, and G. Sztabiński. In the second part, the author asks the question about how much the way of thinking of art has changed in the age of late modernity. She mainly refers to Dieter Mersch’s ‘media reflection’ and Germano Celant’s idea of the present.