Theodore W. Adorno – “Every work of art is an uncommitted crime”

• Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903-69) notes

Minima Moralia: Reflections From Damaged Life (Minima Moralia: Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben) a 1951 seminal text in Critical Theory.
Norman, Carol  “‘Every Work of Art Is an Uncommitted Crime’: The Application of Sociological Theories of Deviance to Modern Art,” Internet Journal of Criminology  (2009) pdf
“Every work of art is an uncommitted crime”  Like crime, it often breaks societal rules, however, art is not typically against the law & for this reason it is ‘uncommitted crime’
Three movements in modern art are particularly associated with rule breaking. Chronologically,
❶ Impressionism & Post-Impressionism. The modern period & Impressionism began with Édouard Manet (1832-1883). At this time, cultural certainties were collapsing. Manet’s work, e.g., Le Dejeuner sur L’herbe’ (1863) reflected this & transgressed the traditional assumptions of the art canon in a number of ways (Gombrich 1972). He mixed secular & religious themes; he refuted the idealised conception of the female nude & painted nudes with individual character
❷ Surrealism & Dada  Example: Max Ernst’s ‘The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child before Three Witnesses: Andre Breton, Paul Eluard and the Painter’ (1926) depicts the three wise men as surrealists and shows Christ as merely an ordinary naughty child. (Luke 2:41-52)
❸ Contemporary art