Lisa Pasch "Heidegger’s Holistic Approach to Defining Art"

A point of Heidegger’s section in The Nature of Art text is the holistic approach he takes to defining what art is. It says, “Every aspect of the complex phenomenon of art – the art object itself, the artist (or “creator”), the audience (or “preserver”), and the work (in the sense of the effect) of art – is equally crucial to understanding what art is.” When I first read this, I thought that Heidegger was just making the definition of art overly complex and somewhat vague, but upon further thought I have realized that in order to really understand art, one cannot remove parts of the whole. Art does not just appear into being, someone must create it. Someone will be viewing the art, whether it is only the artist post-creation, his or her closest friends, or the general public in a museum. How the art moves the audience is also an important factor. None of these factors are less important that the other and they all rely on each other in some form. I think it is something a lot of the previous readings had been lacking. Now, I may not agree with his entire theory of art as truth, but I can say that I appreciate his approach and I think it is important to consider how he went about analyzing this difficult question when developing our own thoughts on the meaning and purpose of art.