Sociology Essay: Autonomous Artists, Impressionism, and Mass Culture

This sociology essay delves into the concept of autonomous artists, primarily focusing on the Impressionist art movement, and their divergence from traditional artistic norms. The essay examines the influence of the Frankfurt School theorists, Adorno and Horkheimer, and their perspectives on mass culture's impact on artistic freedom. It highlights the Impressionists, such as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, as key examples of artists who challenged established conventions and sought independence in their work. The essay discusses the challenges these artists faced, including rejection by traditional art institutions, and how they ultimately contributed to the development of modern art. The analysis draws upon Adorno's critiques of mass culture, comparing the destruction of aesthetic art with the Holocaust, and emphasizes the importance of autonomous artists in shaping contemporary art. The essay concludes by underscoring the significance of the Impressionist movement as a catalyst for artistic innovation and a testament to the enduring value of artistic independence. The essay provides a comprehensive understanding of how the Impressionists, considered autonomous artists, broke away from conventional artistic practices and paved the way for modernism.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY
The concept of the autonomous artists has derived from the two members of the Frankfurt
School Adorno and Horkheimer. The study of these two people named the Dialectic of the
Enlightenment has been very crucial for the understanding of the common people. However, the
concept of the autonomous artist is a kind of art expert who has been free from all these types of
artistic traditions that have emerged in the society as the traditional forms of art (Stoetzler,
2018). In this paper, the followers of impressionism art movement will be considered as the
autonomous artists who deviated from the traditional cultural industry an established their
position strongly.
It has been exclaimed that the traditional artists had the scopes of making high incomes
through portraying all the traditional images. The examples of the Bohemian artists could also be
given in these circumstances who tried to break away from the shackles of the traditional art and
establish their way of portraying the different aspects of the art (Stoetzler, 2018). Here, the
concept of the mass culture is one of the main things that can be attributed to the artistic forms.
In his writings, Adorno believed that the freedom was decreasing in presenting the
aesthetic nature in the artistic forms. Therefore, it was very much critical to show how artists
wanted to present their own works that could not be presented through the mass culture. The
dominance of the mass culture increased so much that the artists did not have the opportunities to
show their talents in front of the art lovers. Adorno even had stated that “To write poetry after
Auschwitz was barbaric”. Thus, it is quite important to note that Adorno had criticized the mass
culture from the core of his heart.
He even went on to compare the desctruction of the aesthetic art with the Holocaust
because it was impossible to produce beautiful art works after the events of the mass destruction.

2SOCIOLOGY
It has been noticed that the artists engaged in the popular and mass culture of arts will look to
provide higher levels of money for them. The freedom of creating new things and the happiness
of bringing new unique matters in the artistic forms had been initiated by the proponents of
impressionist movements like Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and many other artists. They took
the art movements to a form of revolution and this has to be praised by all art lovers in the world.
The artworks by these people showed an overall profound impact on the people who actually
understood the artistic traditions and the modern art (Stoetzler, 2018). The paintings of these
people were exhibited in the year 1863 at Salon de Refusés in Paris.
Sometimes the rules were very much rigid and these followers of the impressionism art
movement went on to break the chains and pained some unique things on nature and other
abstract images. They deviated from the mass culture and did not like to paint the images of
religious traditions or monuments, buildings and others. Some painters of these artistic traditions
had the interests of painting human beings (Stone, 2014). This is quite significant for them to be
called as the autonomous artists. It must be admitted that around 5000 pieces of paintings had
been submitted to the Salon by the artists but only 2000 of them had been accepted. This denotes
the society did not want to drift away from the traditional painting cultures and embrace the new
and unique painting skills (Herbert, 2015). This would have put their existence into jeopardy.
The role of the Impressionism art movement was immense and they should be termed as the
autonomous artists.
This group of artists gave the birth to a new form of art and this was probably the
beginning of the modernism. The languages of the representation through the artistic imageries
gave them the opportunity through which they could bring in the positive changes in the art
works. New forms had been implemented in the artistic traditions and this was the essence for

3SOCIOLOGY
the breaking the conventions in the society (Stone, 2014). The independence and freedom in the
art works and transformed their views on the contemporary art and the ways they wanted to
change it.
This is how they wanted to convince the art lovers so they could transform the concepts
of art for most people in the artistic traditions (Sherwood, 2019). This is where Adorno and
Horkheimer’s views could be utilized by the other people of the society. The sketchy techniques
of the traditional art might have been popular among the common people because of the
influence of the mass culture. Rather it might have been very chaotic if the people did not accept
the works of the autonomous artists properly (Elliott & Wallace, 2014).
The followers of the impressionist art movement brought forward various aspects through
their views that it captured the minds of most of the people. They could not think of the ways
through which these chains of traditional art form could be broken so new air could get in. The
interpretations of the art works were very unique and some art experts believed that the ideas of
these autonomous artists were to be lasted for long (Robins, 2016).
In the final concluding section of the paper, it must be said that the autonomous artists
have always presented some unique characters in their art forms. The impressionist art
movement followers are regarded as the most crucial autonomous artists as Adorno and
Horkheimer had discussed about. Their works have shown their deviation from the common
works of art in the traditional fashion. They did not like to work within these traditional
movements that might have put their unique innovative forms in the proper place. These things
have been very important for the autonomous artists to work at their own flow and do bnot abide
by the traditional standards.

4SOCIOLOGY
References
Elliott, B. J., & Wallace, J. A. (2014). Women artists and writers: Modernist (im) positionings.
Routledge.
Herbert, J. D. (2015). Brushstroke and Emergence: Courbet, Impressionism, Picasso. University
of Chicago Press.
Robins, C. (2016). Curious lessons in the museum: the pedagogic potential of artists'
interventions. Routledge.
Sherwood, T. (2019). Inspiring Autonomous Artists: A Framework for Independent
Singing. Journal of Singing, 75(5), 527-533.
Stoetzler, M. (2018). Dialectic of Enlightenment. Philosophical Fragments. Sage Handbook of
Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Hrsg. Beverley Best, Werner Bonefeld und Chris
O’Kane, Bd, 1, 142-160.
Stone, A. (2014). Adorno, Hegel, and dialectic. British Journal for the History of
Philosophy, 22(6), 1118-1141.