"Aestheticism
is a search after the
signs of the beautiful. It is the science
of the beautiful through which men
seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to
speak more exactly, the search after
the secret of life.“ Oscar Wilde.
… believed that art should
communicate truth above all things.
However, This could not be revealed
by mere display of skill, and must be
an expression of the artist's whole
moral outlook
“Music when healthy, is the
teacher of perfect order,
and when depraved, the
teacher of perfect disorder.”
John Ruskin
:Every good composition is above all a
work of abstraction. All good painters
know this. But the painter cannot
dispense with subjects altogether
without his work suffering
impoverishment.”
The only thing I know is that I paint
because I need to, and I paint
whatever passes through my head
without any other consideration.
Frida Kahlo
I paint selfportraits
because I
am so often
alone,
because I
am the
person I
know best.
Frida Kahlo
“To approach the spiritual in
art, one will make as little use
as possible of reality,
because reality is opposed to
the spiritual.”
“I construct lines and color
combinations on a flat surface,
in order to express general
beauty with the utmost
awareness. Nature (or, that
which I see) inspires me, puts
me, as with any painter, in an
emotional state so that an urge
comes about to make
something, but I want to come
as close as possible to the truth
“Art is not made for
and abstract everything from
that, until I reach the foundation anybody and is, at the
(still just an external foundation) same time, for
of things.”
everybody.”
“Making money is art “Why do people think
and working is art and artists are special? It's
good business is the
just another job.’
best art.”
“I do the same thing everyday. I go to work
“I paint
and paint. I try to turn out as many pictures
anybody,
as I can.”
anybody that
asks me.”
The artists and writers of Aesthetic style tended to
profess that the Arts should provide refined sensuous
pleasure, rather than convey moral or sentimental
messages. As a consequence, they did not accept
John Ruskin and Matthew Arnold's utilitarian
conception of art as something moral or useful.
Instead, they believed that Art did not have any
didactic purpose; it need only be beautiful. The
Aesthetes developed a cult of beauty, which they
considered the basic factor of art. Life should copy
Art, they asserted. They considered nature as crude
and lacking in design when compared to art.
- Wikipedia
“The moment
you think you
understand a
great work of
art, it's dead for
you.”
“All art is quite
useless.”
“Art is the most intense
mode of individualism
that the world has
known.”
“It is
through art,
and art only, that
we can shield
ourselves from the
sordid perils of
actual existence.”
In "The Soul of Man", Wilde argues that, under
capitalism, "the majority of people spoil their lives
by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism—are
forced, indeed, so to spoil them": instead of
realising their true talents, they waste their time
solving the social problems caused by capitalism,
without taking their common cause away.
In a socialist society, people will have the possibility to
realise their talents; "each member of the society will
share in the general prosperity and happiness of the
society." Wilde added that "upon the other hand,
Socialism itself will be of value simply because it will
lead to individualism" since individuals will no longer
need to fear poverty or starvation.