  In their own artistic practice and their work as critics, the existentialists tended to interpret this conception of art’s mission (as revelation and appeal) as an argument in favour of representational approaches, and against formalistic and puristic approaches. They were generally sceptical of ‘autotelic’ conceptions of the artwork that view it as a self-contained object answerable only to its own formal rules. In this respect, again, they differ from some modernist views. Indeed, this insistence on the representative dimension of art might appear old-fashioned, inasmuch as the more modern insistence on the autonomy of the artwork has marked most late 19th century aesthetic projects and their 20th century descendants. The existentialists’ insistence on the intrinsic ethical and political significance of the artwork further distances them from these other aesthetic approaches.