Oscar Wilde makes a commentary at the very start of the book, talking about art's aestheticism and beauty. His elaborates on the view that an artist is capable of making beauty, but of also making useless work. He believes that those who try to hard to interpret masterpieces and tend to see ugliness are "corrupt without being charming" (vii). It is beautiful as it is, not be be too analyzed for symbol or to give it more meaning. The aesthetic of artwork is to be admired if beautiful, but only then, for if the artwork is useless or truly ugly. Then, at the end, he says "All art is quite useless" (viii), somewhat contradicting his previous arguments.
Wilde takes his audience for one that perceives art in the wrong way. He tries to enlighten their approach to viewing art's aesthetic by instructing them of the rights and wrongs. Criticizing art makes the artist feel they have accomplished their goal--but the reader does not know this. He also knows how his audience most likely dislikes art that is too similar to their own flaws, and tends to embrace the things that surpass the beauty of themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment