Aestheticizing

Aestheticizing Politics vs. Politicizing Art

Walter Benjamin discusses the theme of aestheticizing politics and politicizing art in his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproduction”. Benjamin wrote the essay in 1936, when Fascism and Communism were influencing the world. His ending lines are: ‘Humankind, which once, in Homer was an object of contemplation for the Olympian gods, has now become one in itself. Its self-alienation has reached the point where it can experience its annihilation as a supreme aesthetic pleasure. Such is the aestheticizing of politics as practiced by Fascism. Communism replies by politicizing art’ (74). As humans were becoming more secularized, so was art. Art was not about the ritualistic aspect it once was, of the time of cave paintings, and ‘instead of being founded on ritual, it is based on […] politics’ (64). Before art was revolutionized, humankind was contemplating spirituality and religion, and thus their art was contemplating spirituality and religion. Once humans stopped contemplating about spirituality and religion, they started contemplating themselves. And this carried into their art. Fascism tries to make their politics look aesthetically pleasing, while communism incorporates art into their politics. Even though Benjamin wrote at a different time, his essay themes make sense, and can be applied to our day and age as well. With the examples I have chosen, no matter what their time period, Benjamin’s themes still apply. There is still a stark difference between aestheticizing politics and politicizing art, so I will look at both in my examples.