Abstract: In his middle and later writings, Heidegger puts forward the issue of the relation of art and objecthood, holding that creation presents an object as a production and an artwork manifests the thingly element in a broad field, with criticism of the three definitions of the thing: the thing as a carrier of properties, the thing as a unit of sensorial perception, and the thing as matter moulded in a particular form. Heidegger's ideas based on his art ontology reflect his thoughts about what art is and what a human being is, which are related to the art trends of the 20^th century and then become a core issue of contemporary debates in aesthetics and art theory. Although other aestheticians or thinkers seem to discuss such issues in a remoulding way of what Heidegger criticizes while seldom following his own thinking, they are similar with Heidegger in the terms of anti-mimesis and anti-metaphysics.

Key words: Heidegger, art, objecthood, substance, anti-metaphysics