Through one of those ironic reversals of history, the existence of artworks has become an obstacle to a theory about them. This is a fundamental truth of contemporary aesthetics. As a bearer of an art philosophy, the artwork itself is no longer considered. The concept of the work has become fragmented and dissolved. The statement is also true in another respect. It refers to the historical process of the separation of art and life, which culminated in the 19th century: artworks disappeared into museums, severing their connection with real living conditions; from then on, they haunted the aesthetic consciousness like will-o'-the-wisps. One of the most solid attempts to draw consequences from this insight comes from the American philosopher John Dewey, a leading representative of pragmatism. Art as experience: that is the concise formula for it.