Ilumination

The presented book concerns the phenomenon of art, but its approach radically differs from the usual reflection on it. The author maintains that art is—like all human artifacts—historical, but its immaterial essence, is no longer historical. In other words, he suggests that what is most important in art is not only difficult (if at all) to conceptualize; something more: he claims that this essence transcends, in a way that is difficult to explain, the historical time of its creation. In other words, art is, by its very nature, transhistorical. Or, to borrow a philosophical dictionary entry: metaphysical—in the full semantic scope of the adjective. The way art manifests itself changes with history (the very concept of art is also historical!), but this circumstance, the author suggests, belongs to the realm of accidents. They have no major influence on what is decisive in the experience of art.

The book's fundamental thesis is the explicit conviction that, in its highest realizations, art is a fully fledged instrument of knowledge. In other words, it is not beauty (Kant's belief) that defines its value, but truth (Heidegger's suggestion). In his original anthropological proposal, the author presents creativity animated by the desire to discover a reality unattainable in everyday cognition, as well as in scientific knowledge. Citing specific examples (from poetry, painting, music, and film), he reveals the sphere of poiesis as a space of true ontophany: a stunning and breathtaking revelation of reality, both visible and invisible.