Abstract:
In this thesis I have examined contemporary status of the sublime arts. The artworks on which this examination is based, were exhibited in the exposition Meer Licht by Museum De Fundatie in Zwolle. This exhibition was composed by art critic Hans Den Hartog Jager, whom has described the new sublime as ‘a return of beauty without its former innocence’. This definition or description lacks a sound theoretical approach and doesn’t regard the relationship between contemporary sublime art and its historical and theoretical predecessors. The contemporary sublime arts I have described, are showing a constant movement between postmodern and romantic notions regarding the sublime. Since these features and theoretical approaches seem to depend on both romantic as postmodern aesthetics and theories, I have suggested to regard the contemporary sublime as a cultural product of the metamodernism.
