O napiêciach miêdzy sztuka i kulturá
On Tensions Between Art and Culture

Summary/Abstract: Wies³aw Juszczak wrote an essay on tensions between art and culture. It was entitled ‘Illicit Ornament’ (published in a volume of prose entitled ‘Fragments’). He wrote about ornament as immanent part of art, and not merely as an element of design. In the western art, ornament is usually ‘added’ to things in order to decorate them. Juszczak says that it should be considered as an element of ‘archaic ontology’. Ornament is connected with religious belief and sacred pictures. It refers to the sense of order and the sense of mystery. In art, which lost its broad dimension, it is reduced to decoration and dies with that weakened art. Juszczak believes that art should be based on ‘archaic ontology’, which is the basis of ornament. Ornament should be considered as integral element of art. If that connection is lost, art may become a ‘para-artistic phenomenon’. As the result of that. the gap between art and culture may widen. Clifford Geertz wrote about art in the context of ‘dynamic artistic experience’. He believes that art is connected with the human life through a link, which isn’t only an instrument, but, rather, it is the sense of art and life. Civilization deprived of its art may continue to exist, but people couldn’t communicate on higher intellectual level, for example, they wouldn’t be able to express their feelings, if they lost their artistic sense. Both authors approach the problem of relations between art an culture from different points of view, nevertheless, they both agree, that formalistic and functional reduction of art leads nowhere. Also, they believe that art will not become senseless.

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