Abstract

This paper suggests a systematic theoretical re-reading of artistic communication and the art within the social system. The text focuses on the constructivist approach to the definition of reality of which art is one meaningful medium. The development of the concept of «doubling of reality» allowed Luhmann's System Theory to describe the system of art as a social system whose function is to construct reality by nothing. Drawing from heterogeneous material, it is argued that the problem of art arises when its functional system has to deal with radical self-reference.