In this short book, Marcus Gabriel argues that art is essentially uncontrollable. It is in the nature of a work of art to be so autonomous that the art world can never overpower it. Since the cave paintings of Lascaux, art has possessed human minds. Through the emergence of art, we have become human beings, that is, beings who live in the light of the image of the human being and its position in the world and in relation to other species. Through its structural, ontological power, art was and remains radically autonomous. And yet this power is deeply ambiguous, since we are unable to control its operation.

In this book, the leading exponent of the "new realism" applies this philosophical view of art to create a new aesthetic realism.