Autonomy: Towards Social Ontology of Art Under Capitalism br

"Works of art exist: how are they possible?" It is over a century ago that Lu-kacs posed this question. But Lukacs did not have to confront the "wholesale reduction of culture to a commodity". This phenomenon, lamented on the left while the right celebrates "a more favorable attitude towards the commer-cialization of culture". Is nonetheless confidently affirmed by all sides, which "assert in the most ardent terms that art is, always has been, or has recently become, nothing but a commodity". In a society like ours, claims to exist out-side the circulation of commodities are rightly ruled out as hopelessly naive: we are wise enough to know that the work of art is a commodity like any other. What is less clear is whether we know what we mean when we say it.