Freedom as the Source of Innovation in Art

There are works created and being created as works of art that are neither numerable, nor anyone's life is long enough to read, see and listen to all of them. The philosophy of art and aesthetics studies the art and the beautiful with respect to their nature, origin, influences, essential conditions and commitment to the reality of the subject-matter.In this paper, I shall briefly consider philosophical theories concerning art. Tolstoy, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, and Adorno have adopted various approaches to the art and the beautiful. Some of them take the art to be autonomous, and some take it to be a sensed spirit. Heidegger emphasizes on the appearance of reality in a work of art, and Tolstoy calls the art to a certain mission. A comparative review of these approaches paves the path for an answer to the question whether the art in itself determines the reality in a sensuous form? I defend the view that if the philosophy of art is concerned with works of art and takes them as its criterion, the answer shall be negative. In fact, artists do not listen much to philosophical and aesthetic theorizations. They share their ways of expressing the art, to wit, in addressing the perception, but they remain non-committal in the themes, except in virtue of an outer demand (such as Socialist art). Freedom is the origin of innovation in art. Finally it will remained to be judged by the readers whether we can theorize about the art without concerning ourselves with works of art themselves?