人們想到藝術作品，經常認為藝術作品是美麗的、是含有「美」的，也因此將藝術作品歸入美學領域，或將藝術作品視為審美的對象，認為藝術作品是具有「美」這個特性的「物」。這樣的看法輕易地將藝術作品的核心視為「美」或必須以美學來處理的對象，也理所當然地將藝術作品視為一種客體、將人視為主體。海德格認為真正在藝術作品中起作用的並不是「美」，而是「真理」，他不將作品帶給人的感覺放在優位，而重視作品「開顯存在」的特性。
一件藝術作品有多種面向，有感官特性、社會功能、與創作者之關係、在歷史中的地位等，〈藝術作品的本源〉這篇文章如題所述，旨在探討藝術作品的「本源」，海德格要找出使作品成為作品的究竟是什麼，是什麼在作品中起作用，是什麼讓作品「如其所是」。他要做的不是鑽研作品的所有面向，而是找到藝術作品的基礎，為此海德格將藝術作品拉入了存在論的脈絡，他從比較作品與工具、純然物等存在者開始，確立了作品的存在特性，並表示不能以我們理解一般存在物的方式理解作品；接著提出作品之為作品乃因它建立一個世界並製造了大地，世界與大地在作品中產生衝突，進而使真理發生，亦即作品之「開顯存在」。

People think that work of art is beautiful, that beauty can be found in each and every piece of artwork. Hence, the knowledge of work of art belongs to the realm of aesthetics. Within this realm, a work of art is considered to be an aesthetic object, a beautiful artifact. Parallel to the objectification of the artwork, its audiences or viewers are taken as “subjects”. Against this understanding of modern aesthetics, Heidegger claims that what actually prevails in work of art is not beauty as sensible quality, but “truth”. The artwork is capable of “opening up Being” prior to its sensible impacts on people.
A work of art has many aspects, such as its sensible properties, social functions, its relation to artists, historical position, etc. The main points of Origin of the Work of Art, as its title suggested, is to trace back the origin of work of art. The present thesis has the aim to find out what prevails in work of art, what makes it to be itself, to be what it is. Heidegger’s investigation does not intend to explore all the aspects of work of art; it focuses rather solely on the basis of work of art. By observing the work of art in the context of ontology and comparing it with equipment and mere things, Heidegger attempts to underline the major characteristics of artwork. According to him, it is the setting up of a world and the setting forth of the earth that constitute the upsurge of an artwork. World and earth are dimensions of Being which conflict with each other explicitly through the phenomenon of artwork. This oppositional event makes truth happens in the work. Heidegger called the happening of truth “the opening up of Being”.

海德格主要著作

德文版

GA 5 Holzwege (1935–1946), ed. F.-W. von Herrmann, 1977, 2nd edn. 2003, VI
GA 13 Aus der Erfahrung des Denkens (1910–1976), ed. H. Heidegger, 1983, 2nd edn. 2002, VIII
SZ Sein und Zeit, Tübingen : Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1967

英文版

BT Being and Time, Blackwell. 2001. Translated by John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson
BW Basic Writings, HarperCollins 1993. Translated by David Farrell Krell

中文版

《林中路》。上海 : 上海譯文，1997。孫周興譯。
《存在與時間》。台北：久大桂冠聯合出版，1993。王慶節、陳嘉映譯。

外文二手文獻

Arnett, Willard. 1969. Santayana and the sense of beauty. Gloucester, Mass., P. Smith
Dreyfus, Hubert. 1990. Being-in-the-world: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division I. The MIT Press
Eco, Umberto. 1988. The aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas. Cambridge. Mass. : Harvard University Press.
Hegel, G. W. F.. 1975. Aesthetic: Lectures on Fine Art Volume I. Oxford, Clarendon Press Translated by T. M. Knox
Thomson, Iain. 2011. Heidegger, Art, and postmodernity. New York : Cambridge University Press.
Torsen, Ingvild. 2016 “Disinterest and Truth: On Heidegger’s Interpretation of Kant’s Aesthetics.” British Journal of Aesthetics. 56: 1. pp. 15-32.
Torsen, Ingvild. 2014. “What was abstract art? (From the point of view of Heidegger).” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 72:3. pp. 291-302.
Young, Julian. 2001. Heidegger’s Philosophy of Arts. Cambridge. New York : Cambridge University Press.
今道友信，『講座 美学 (1)』。東京大学出版会。1984

中文二手文獻

張汝倫，《存在與時間釋義》，上海：上海人民出版社。2012
陳榮華，《海德格存有與時間闡釋》，台北：國立臺灣大學出版中心。2006
劉昌元，《西方美學導論》，台北：聯經。2002
文哲，《康德美學》，台北：聯經。2011
Marina Abramović著，蘇文君譯，《疼痛是一道我穿越了的牆：瑪麗娜・阿布拉莫維奇自傳》，台北：網路與書。2017
Arthur C. Danto著，林雅琪、鄭惠雯譯，《在藝術終結之後：當代藝術與歷史藩籬》，台北：麥田。2010
Susan Sontag著，黃茗芬譯，《反詮釋：桑塔格論文集》，台北：麥田。2016