The text begins with etymological reflections on the term “art” in various European languages and its numerous connotations. Five main basic meanings of the notion of art are enumerated and described, such as: disposition for action, this very action, the realm of life consisting of some kind of actions, the rules of action, and the results of action. Subsequently, two main traditional purposes of artistic actions are indicated and characterized, which are beauty and reality. This pair of notions implies four kinds of artistic creation: aesthetic/anti-aesthetic mimetism/ antimimetism. The term of mimetism can be applied both to the imitation of nature, as well as to the imitation of preceding artists. In the latter interpretation, a different classification appears: classical/original mimetism/antimimetism. Next, Maria Gołaszewska’s definition of contemporary art is discussed in the light of previous analysis. In the conclusion of the essay the final characteristic of contemporary art is presented with a quote from Arthur Rimbaud’s poem, as “absolutely modern”.

This study is an exploration of formal-aesthetic correspondences between presenta-tion strategies and techniques of transforming traditional literary and musical genre conventions in Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck. It takes as its bottom line William J. Entwistle’s distinction between re-creation and recreation (he used it in his appreciation of Don Quixote and so did Erich Auerbach) and his under-standing of art as an act of reproduction (re-creation) obliged to please (recreation). Seen from that perspective, both Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Berg’s opera “suffer” from ex-cess – overmuchness and surfeit with a tangible residue of melancholy. But it is because of these surpluses that these two works are regarded as masterpieces with continuing universal appeal.