Is Art Useful?

The ‘popular’ has often been—and continues to be—affected by the definition of ‘art’ as art that is ‘autonomous’ and ‘free’ (in the sense of not serving a purpose, i.e., being non-functional), a definition that would place the ‘popular’ on the non-art side. In some cases, the artifacts of ‘popular culture’ are even defined outright as being non-autonomous, non-‘non-functional’ and therefore not artistic—even when the works in question are not furniture, trousers, and brooches but rather novels, paintings, and films.