Originary experience of art in Martin Heidegger’s philosophy

Martin Heidegger in The Origin of the Work of Art (Der Ursprung des Kunstwerkes) developed a whole new way of thinking about art, going beyond traditionally understood aesthetics or even philosophy of art. Some of Heidegger’s thoughts, however, appear to be understated and only signal a huge complexity of both experiencing works of art and the very issue of the origin of the work of art. The analysis of the terms ‘dread’ and ‘eyeblink’ from Time and Being presented in this article complement and develop Heidegger’s ideas included in his essay. Linking art to these two crucial phenomena of fundamental ontological analysis of Dasein casts light on the status of art and its existential significance. The author aims mainly at demonstrating the aletheic connection (based on unclosedness) between the experience of ‘originary source’ of a piece of art and ‘dread’, and also, in conclusion, he points to the ‘event of Being’ as the essential, non-metaphysical origin of art.