ABSTRACT
Theodor Adorno’s major contribution to the philosophy of art, his Asthetische Theorie, appeared in 1970. The work was almost completed when the author died in 1969. Adorno meant to rewrite the introduction, but otherwise the text needed only formal revisions, which were carried out by Rolf Tiedemann, Adorno’s faithful disciple and editor. Tiedemann rightly felt that Asthetische Theorie deserved immediate publication since it was the legacy of Critical Theory. The charges varied, but there was almost a consensus among the critics of the left camp that Theodor Adorno’s last book did not offer the materialist theory of art that everybody was looking for. It was particularly Adorno’s insistence on the autonomy of the art work and his well-known indictment of Tendenz and political art which angered the Left. The category of negativity is crucial for Theodor Adorno’s philosophy. Through its negativity the work of art secures its authenticity and sets itself apart from the convention of its time and genre.
