Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez

a perspective of the open concept of art

Abstract

The main objective of this contribution is to analyze the open concept of art in some of the works of the Spanish-Mexican philosopher Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, who lives in exile in Mexico. In the first introductory part, this article attempts to briefly introduce the central thematic points of an open concept of aesthetics that understands art as a form of Marxist practice. The second part of my article aims to examine those parts of the work Las ideas estéticas de Marx (The Aesthetic Ideas of Marx) that are thematically relevant to the understanding of the open concept of art as conceived by Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez. In a third part, I try not only to regain a Marxist aesthetic theory that has been neglected by contemporary art philosophy, but also to offer a new reading, namely in the sense of an explanation of the relationship between the open meaning of art and the necessary universal and critical self-referentiality of art theory itself. The problem I will analyze is the inconsistency of closed aesthetic theories. Fourthly and finally, I will try to make some suggestions for a possible universalization or socialization of art or art-making, that has as a parameter an open definition of art.