Oedipus, Warhol, Nietzsche and Kanye: What is Art?

Art has always been an object of fascination for me, as I am often drawn to things I don’t understand. Art is a particular case as it holds such importance in our society, being one part of humanity that we still have in common with our ancestors, though its uses and forms have varied greatly over time. It is rather uncanny how art surrounds me constantly in my everyday life; walking to school I pass monuments that are recorded in art history textbooks, and up-and-coming exhibitions make necessary regular appearances in the cultured conversations of hipsters everywhere. But in the midst of this infatuation with art in our culture, how can we explain the undeniable taboo that surrounds the very concept of art? Even the least cultured folk can point at the Mona Lisa and identify it as a masterpiece, but is it not odd that only a very few percentage of its admirers can understand and explain in a comprehensive way why some woman’s portrait has become a priceless symbol of artistic genius? 

However after reading Nietzsche, I feel like some light has been shed on my confusion with an adequate answer. Avoiding both fluffy admiration (“ahh, I love the pretty colours”) and culture-snob jargon (“Warhol’s Campbell Soup prints pierce in to our souls and is obviously meant to overwhelm us with a rejuvenating critique of a cross between modern-day commercialism and the clash between social classes”), Nietzsche’s understanding of art provides an explanation we can all relate to: our untimely death.  

Grim as it may be, Nietzsche’s Doctrine of Tragedy aligns with his “Pro life-affirming” philosophy, in that it states that art both celebrates and acknowledges the Truth that we will all eventually die. While most of our humanly efforts aim to make us forget about our inevitable destiny by appropriating our experiences and turning metaphors into truths (basically our conceived truths are just a bunch of illusions from translating images and feelings into imperfect words) to suit our needs, art is able to bring us back down from our anthropocentric pedestal and meet our fate face-to-face. 

However if this is truly to be the definition of art, we need to accept the fact that while there is good Truth-proclaiming art out there, there are a lot of wannabes. While Oedipus reminds us of the dangers of rejecting our fate, I cannot say with confidence that the same applies to the lyrical proclamations of today’s Top 20 Hits applies…

Thus Nietzsche singles out Greek Tragedies as his idea of the highest forms of art. Ancient Greek culture is life-affirming in that it embraces ALL of life—good and bad. For example, Zeus’ lustful urges are actively pursued rather than repressed, despite the abhorrent connotation that his actions may hold according to our modern-day society. Tragedies are especially valued because while they force us to confront our death, they give us tools to cope so that we may continue on living our lives avoiding constant despair (namely, amor fati: the love of our fate through cheerful passivity, and transgression, accepting responsibility for our fate through cheerfulness of activity).

 While Nietzsche’s Doctrine of Tragedy certainly helps me to understand the mystery of art, I can’t help but question whether this is an adequate standard to judge all art as a whole. Must we cast away all of the beloved treasures that remain, for example, from the time of Catholic patronage? Should we cover up the Sistine Chapel with a fresco of Oedipus gorging his eyes out? Perhaps Zarathustra would say yes, though he may agree that great corpus of human artistry is one of the many tainted metaphysical values that humanity is not yet ready to scrap.