All art is quite useless.
Do you wonder if there is a meaning to art?
Oscar Wilde will always be one of the most recognizable names in literature. The flow and style of his writing is so undoubtedly unique to him that it is easy to recognize his writing within 3 sentences of reading. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the crown jewel of Wilde’s portfolio, and in this book he reveals his message as early as the preface. Wilde’s Preface is crafted in the style where there are numerous sentences that carry strong messages on how to perceive art, with some resonating more for people based on who they are. The Preface ends with a seemingly bizarre set of lines when viewed in the context of Wilde’s status as a creator of art. These give a perspective on what the meaning of art is.
“We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.”
Every person who listens to a song hears different lines that speak at differing depths to the soul. The emotional reactions created by art are the main product of it, and these reactions reflect truth that cannot be cast aside. This is a principle of all art.
Claude Monet was the French painter who founded impressionism. Monet worked at a similar time as Wilde, and his style was also transcendent within the area of his craft. Monet used a variety of unique techniques that enhanced the spontaneity and immersion of his works. Some of the signatures of his works were painting outside, using light colors, using thick paint, and painting in quick but detailed strokes. Monet painted at a time where art was taught by analyzing and copying the styles of the past, and he despised this philosophy towards art, which I think shows in his paintings.
Monet’s and Wilde’s works both embody a perspective on what masterful art can mean to someone. I believe that both artists saw art as a mirror of human emotion. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the protagonist looks at a painting of himself to assess his moral standing, and Monet’s art captures the real world with all real details that place the viewer where he stood, but in their own perspective. In Wilde’s opinion, from the perspective of a creator of a masterpiece, all art is quite useless, but from the perspective of a perceiver, art reflects truth that cannot be cast aside. There are truths about all of us that have not yet been realized, and there are mirrors with words written, paint splattered, and sounds created on them that reflect what we are looking for. To me, that presence of a mirror is the meaning of art.
