Friedrich Nietzsche's understanding of art and the question of Nihilism

In this study, It is interrogated Friedrich Nietzsche's explanations on nihilism and critic of nihilism in detail. And It is examined where Nietzsche's understanding of art is located in his struggle to overcome nihilism. Firstly Nietzsche's impressions about the adventure of nihilism in Europe are discussed. Nihilism is the symptom of decadence that herd instinct which dominates over paganic aristocracy leads. It is inevitable that nihilism causes the huge crisis in the Europe by its radicalisation. How one would come out of this crisis by becoming stronger is crucial point. In the second part of the the study, religion, morality and science are examined as forms of nihilism that create antithesis. And then it is argued about the aristocracy of future and the over-man who would go beyond these antithesis. In the last part of the study, Nietzsche's understanding of art is questioned. It is showed that Nietzsche sees art as an affirmation of the difference rather than the doctrine of the redemption in the romanticists. The concept of grand style is analyzed as the order of rank give form to instincts fighting each other and as an architectural style in which creation, commanding and willing are possible. Thus, art is what gives meaning to life in physiological level.