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Key Visual ElitenIgor Miske © Unsplash

The Elite in the Arts

Visual Arts, Music, Literature, Dance & Theatre


What power drives art to change? What causes new forms of expression and new styles? How does the new come into the world?

On this website, American and German theoreticians show how the arts continue to develop in sudden leaps and bounds from the tension between popular and elite tendencies. Here historical events, technological inventions and economic changes all play an important role. We invite you to explore playfully the developmental history of the arts in an extremely compressed form by way of examples and with the help of graphics, pictures and short texts. Discussion and criticism are very welcome.

  • Literatur Alfred Döblin, Fischer 2013, S. 329.
    Man wünscht von der Literatur überhaupt […] nicht bloß ästhetische und psychologische, sondern auch, nein, vor allem politische und gesellschaftliche Werte.
  • Bildende Kunst Walter Gropius
    Stil ist nichts Endgültiges, sondern beständiger Wandel.
  • Tanz & Theater Mark Morris
    If nobody comes to your shows, then it's modern dance. If everybody comes to your shows and no one likes it, is that ballet? I don't know.
  • Musik Keith Richards
    If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.

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