The Being of the Work of Art in Heidegger

Abstract

The central aim of this essay is to analyze heidegger's conception of the work of art in his 'der ursprung des kunstwerkes', To illustrate parallels between his conception of the being of the art-Work and his description of the mode of being of 'dasein'. Although it is said that the work of art conserves and preserves the existence of an historical 'dasein' and is a showing forth of being ('das sein'), I try to show that heidegger's description of works of art (which is highly dependent on representative art) tells us a great deal about the preservation of the meaning of man's past, But little about being as such. Finally, I attempt to touch upon the question of heidegger's conception of the contemporary world as nihilistic (in his own terms) and its meaning for his analysis of the meaning of art-Works.