The Art of Society
Niklas Luhmann’s Die Kunst der Gesellschaft (1995) explores the art system as a functionally differentiated subsystem of society, using his broader theory of social systems. The book is structured in seven chapters, each developing central elements of a sociological theory of art. Here's a chapter-by-chapter summary:
1. Perception and Communication: The reproduction of forms
Luhmann starts by distinguishing perception (a function of individual consciousness systems) from communication (the core operation of social systems). Art becomes possible when perception can be communicated as difference. Forms are reproduced through communication, not merely observed. Art does not reflect a given reality but constructs its own observational schemes. Thus, artistic perception is not passive but an active, recursive creation of difference.
2. First order observation and second order observation
This chapter introduces the crucial distinction between first-order observation (seeing something) and second-order observation (observing how something is observed). Art increasingly operates on the second level, reflecting on its own forms and conditions of perception. The modern art system is embedded in reflexivity; it doesn’t just depict, but stages its own difference from the world.
3. Medium and Form
Here, Luhmann applies his general system-theoretical distinction between “medium” (a loose, undifferentiated substrate) and “form” (a distinction made within a medium). In the art system, media (e.g., sound, color) are shaped into forms. Art functions by transforming indeterminate media into recognizable and communicable forms. Importantly, form always creates an environment of the “unformed” as excluded possibility, thus generating new complexity.
4. The Function of Art and the Differentiation of the Art System
Luhmann outlines how art evolved from a cultural practice to an autonomous social system. Its function is no longer to represent beauty or moral truth but to make perception itself observable. This chapter traces the historical differentiation of art, particularly during the Renaissance and Modernity, emphasizing how art has developed its own code and operational closure. The system becomes self-referential and constructs reality through its own distinctions.
5. Self-organization: Coding and Programming
Art is now understood as a self-organizing system. The chapter introduces the art system's code—typically the distinction between “art” and “non-art.” This binary guides whether a work is communicatively recognized within the art world. “Programs” (styles, genres, techniques) help apply this code in concrete contexts. The system doesn’t decide what is art based on external values but on its own internal operations.
6. Evolution
Art’s history is not teleological but evolutionary. Luhmann adopts a neo-Darwinian model with three components: variation (new works), selection (what counts as art), and re-stabilization (what becomes canon). The art system evolves through internal tensions and paradoxes, and increasingly thematizes its own evolution—e.g., by presenting novelty and shock as artistic values.
7. Self-description
The final chapter discusses how art describes itself. Self-description is not just theoretical but part of how the art system reproduces itself. Luhmann shows how modern and postmodern art practices question the boundaries of art, blur distinctions, and play with their own conditions of possibility. From romanticism to postmodernism, art shifts from seeking truth or essence to exploring ambiguity, contingency, and paradox.
Overall
Die Kunst der Gesellschaft conceptualizes art not as a reflection of society, but as an autonomous, communication-based system that reproduces itself by generating forms of perception. It does not serve ideological, moral, or aesthetic norms but follows its own code. This autonomy does not isolate art from society—it allows it to irritate, reflect, and renew cultural structures through its own operations.
Source:
Luhmann, N. (1995), Die Kunst der Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.