Art’s autonomy and its independence
from any sort of external aim, is one of the
most important concepts rising from the
modern art and in a sense, what constitutes
the very border between modern and
traditional arts. While the Philosophy of
art has shown many different positive
or negative reactions to the autonomy
of art, the present article tries to study
and compare two exemplary reactions
which belong to Theodor Adorno and
Walter Benjamin. Scholars usually tend
to categorize these two thinkers under the
rather vague term “the Frankfurt School”
and then put the stress on the convergences
between their ideas but in the case of art,
as we shall see, Benjamin and Adorno
seem somehow divergent. This divergence
can on the one hand, help us comprehend
the different aspects of modern art and on
the other, it can pave the way for a deeper
understanding regarding each of these two
figures.