Art and the Good Life

Art is going through an epochal change. Hardly anything is left of the modern ideals of autonomy, freedom and originality. Today, the pre-modern commissioned artist dominates the scene – sometimes in the role of a creative social worker, sometimes as a manufacturer of shiny status symbols.

But this is how the purpose of art changes: it is no longer an alternative world, but exists in the world. Its traditional values don’t apply any more. And so, we have to re-negotiate art, what it should and what it is allowed to do. When it’s no longer an end all to itself, whose purpose does it serve? Hanno Rauterberg discusses the extensive changes and argues the case for a new artist’s ethos – and for the art of living well.