The morality of 20th‐century transgressive art

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Abstract
According to Kant all moral concepts have their seat in reason, and thus morality must be judged in terms of formal characteristics rather than in terms of content. Kant's categorical imperative defines moral action as a duty, and as a self‐imposed law, empty of any particular content. A basic moral principle is that all persons treat each other as ends and never as means. Similarly, the artist's categorical imperative is that art be true to itself, and that it sees itself as an end and never as a means. Twentieth‐century art, for all its transgressive drive, is intrinsically moral, as all great art always is. The true artist never takes an “official”; stand. He or she incorporates only those properties that will ensure a work of art sufficient unto itself. The product is an affirmation.

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