Power And Art From The Perspective Of Political Aesthetics

At present, the boundary of political aesthetics is not clear. The definition and extension of political aesthetics need constant exploring and update to make them improve and perfect. this paper clear the definition and boundary of “ political aesthetics ”, and then focus on exploring the deep connection between power and art.This paper tries to figure out the process how political aesthetic operations, that is to say, in particular works of art, how does power express itself and affect people’s emotion or even get a response on action of them on different levels of such works. In addition, with the evolution of history, power adjust its form and degree of its participation in art and the development of art. Eventually, the relationship between power and art in real life-world will be concluded.The full text is divided into three parts.The first part is the theoretical basis of this paper, and in this part political aesthetic is explained as a process that through Active or passive aesthetic activities of works of art, the emotional structure of aesthetic subject is impacted consciously or unconsciously by power structure and some response of aesthetic subject will be generated. On this basis, a theoretical framework for the analysis of the article will be constructed. There are three levels of a work of art: artistic language, artistic image, artistic implication. Political aesthetic can be divided into four dimensions: policies, institutions, culture and aesthetic. This3+4 framework will be used to explore the discourse system of political power which hide in specific forms of art. In the second part, three kinds of pop art(Andy Warhol’s pop art, propaganda poster and political pop) are selected for for in-depth analysis and comparison. There is a transverse and longitudinal relationship of comparing and affecting between the three. On the basis of maintaining overall linked, this part is divided into three sections to analyze the relationship generated between each pop and political power on its three levels. Through the analysis of artistic language, artistic image and artistic implication of the three kinds of art, on which level of political aesthetic and how this relationship reflects will be known. The third part summarizes the abstract relationship between power and art. Furthermore, the think of the relationship between power and art in real life-world is extended. They are the media of each other, the explanation of each other and the object for reference to each other.