This paper aims to clarify the relation between art and reconciliation in Herbert Marcuse's thought, according to some of his writings concerning the subject. These works employ the term "reconciliation" with two meanings: it means the possibility of effectuating within material relations the sublimed cultural themes and this would result in the disappearance of the art; on the other hand, it means the image of a harmonic world which art preserves in itself and that stays away from social order. Under this aspect, art remains utopia.
Marcuse; Critical Theory; Frankfurt School; social philosophy; esthetic