ABSTRACT
ART AND DESIGN SERVE ethical and social functions; they help establish andmaintain social order. This position can be contrasted with the idea that works of art are best understood apart from their cultural context, as autonomous products of artistic imagination and virtuosic skill that invite disinterested contemplation. In an autonomous view, art has several attributes. Artworks are special, unique, nonutilitarian, ego-identified (with an individual artist), self-validating, innovative, “without rules,” and often for sale or exhibition as a commodity. While these attributes may describe dominant Western attitudes toward art over the last two hundred years, they do not comprise a comprehensive theory of art. Equally important are views of art based upon its complex relationship to social systems.
