IDENTITY OF THE WORK OF ART

The paper intends to determine the identity of the work of art in visual arts, music and literature. The discussion is of ontological nature. Particular attention is given to the problem of imitation of works of art in different arts, making a distinction between two types of imitation: fakes and forgeries. The first type is found only within the arts where the work of art is a singular physical object, i.e. with the so called autographic arts, whereas the second type can also be found in other, allographic arts, although less commonly. The problem of the imitation of works of art is closely related with the issue concerning the possibility of reducing the work of art to a formal symbolic system which would serve as a definition of the work of art. The discussion shows that a consistent analysis of the ontological status of the work of art in different art forms provides results that may seem at the first glance unintuitive and surprising.