Table of Contents

IntroductionPART ONE: SITUATION1. The conquestand abandonment of aesthetic sovereignty Fractures in the logic of ModernismStages on the road to autonomySovereignty and inner heteronomy2. Criticism's dereliction of dutyCriticism, aesthetics, history of artThe collapse of judgmentTowards an aesthetic logicPART TWO: ARGUMENT3. Aesthetic rationalityBetween magic and reasonRationality and sovereigntyThe limits of aesthetic rationality4. Symbol and symptomThe symbolic intelligibility of singular experienceConfusionsInterferences5. Judgments and preferencesAesthetic pragmaticsAesthetic judgment and idiosyncratic judgmentThe question of criteria6 Aesthetic criteriaCriteria of exclusion Criteria of excellencePART THREE: POLITICS7. InstitutionsA hegemonic tasteGeneralised suspicionConsequences of the institutional turn8. Political strategiesThe public character of art and the question of political engagementAesthetic principles and political implicationsThe Sixties turnConclusionThe demands of the medium and their reward

About the Author

Rainer Rochlitz (1946-2002) is a philosopher, aesthetician and translator. Translated from the French by Dafydd Roberts. Dafydd Roberts is a translator from French and German, mainly in the fields of art, architecture and cultural history. He has translated catalogues and guides for many French and German galleries and museums and for the past decade has been principal translator into English for the Centre Georges Pompidou. His translations include books and essays by Chantal Beret, Didier Ottinger, Michel Serres, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. He lives in London.