Immoral Art?

When art decided to assert its autonomy towards the end of the 19th century, it intended to free itself from social and moral norms that had been hanging over the creative process throughout art history. The vast majority of art pieces were not intended just to please the senses and formal beauty was in the service of political and religious preoccupations.

In this Olio, we will be wondering about the origin of moral judgments towards art pieces whether it be from the artist’s perspective or the spectator’s. We will also question the legitimacy of certain frontiers that have been traced between art and non-art and to what extent these frontiers have to do with the moral judgment about the pieces at hand?

Specifically, the relationship between art and ethics raises multiple questions for us to explore:

Can art within itself be qualified as immoral or moral?

Can the aesthetic experience conceivably free itself from any ethical consideration?

Should we be speaking about ethical responsibility when we consider the social role of an artist?

Teacher: Jeanne Proust