Social Sciences in China Review

No.2, 2019

 

The Thought of Art beyond Art History: Jean Baudrillard as an Opponent and His View on the End of Art (Abstract)

 

Li Xianyou

 

“The End of Art” was a topic that attracted much attention at the end of the 20th century. The debate on this topic generated a set of new ideas and new understandings of contemporary thinkers. Baudrillard stands opposite mainstream Western art historians, estheticians, and critics. From the realistic situation of art-things, he completely dismantled the history of ideas behind the concept of “art” and deconstructed the intrinsic metaphysical logic of the topic through the contemporary characteristics produced by art. In the re-dentification of value, we were led to an anti-essentialist thinking of art. Throughout Baudrillard’s half-entury of academic life, we find that the end of art in his description is a theoretical performance and a comprehensive clearing of the art history tradition.