Word: Self-evident

I'm going to have to argue that the most important word is not art, but that it is only one of the most important. The word, or combined words of "self-evident" prove to be incredibly significant in Adorno's essay. His introductory sentence "It is self-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident anymore..." not only sets the tone for the rest of the essay, being one of artistic open-minded expression, but also proposes a seeming paradox which encompasses the very idea of art itself. 

Adorno defines art as being "at every point indicated by what art once was" in one of his several definitions, yet though art "can be understood by it's laws of movement," his opening statement seems to contradict that fact that it could ever be defined.  The the movement of the piece may be "self-evident," the entire meaning of the piece itself may not be, just as the definition of art varies from definer to definer.