Hermann Pfütze

Paradoxically, avant-gardes are elements of social stability, because they trust in what they want to change, according to their »double character« of aesthetic autonomy and social fact (Adorno). The avant-gardistic conflict between élite distance from the public for the sake of autonomy and egalitarian popularity for the sake of political or aesthetic commitment is therefore always being renewed. Schönberg’s demand for education, mental mobility and individual curiosity for the artists and the public as well, is a social argument that always has strengthened avant-garde-arts, while scandals, scorns and provocations weaken them. mehr