The Hidden Seeds of Survival: Adorno and the Life of Art

Are artworks alive? it is necessary to specify, first of all, what is meant by this question. One answer might point out, cheerfully, that works of art are still being produced, and that older works are still being exhibited, performed, archived, and anthologized, and hence still have an audience, a public, a readership. Art is alive insofar as it is still around and, moreover, insofar as it has a function in the world in which people conduct their lives. It is as if people communicate life to artworks as they brush up against them. Something like this would be the answer to my opening question as proffered by the cultural functionary, who is employed to affirm that art is not only alive, but well. That, however, is not an answer to the question meant here.