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In his 1891 essay The Critic as Artist, Oscar Wilde debates that the criticism of art is an important and often underrated art form, and indeed, he contends to say that art-critics
Clement Greenberg (1909-1994) was possibly the most prominent and influential art critic of the twenty-first century. Greenberg’s intensely influential focus was on the notion of “formal purity” and how that affected the work itself in a painting just being a painting and “orientating itself to flatness” as modernist paintings had. Additionally, Clement Greenberg found interest in Abstract Expressionism and how Greenberg’s strictly outlined theories on art would inspire artists of the Minimalist and Pop Art movements to respond in kind with their own art as a rebuttal.…
The author suggest that we ask ourselves: “What is the purpose of this work of art (and what is the purpose of art in general)? What does it mean? What is my reaction to the work and why do I feel this way? How do the formal qualities of the work-such as color, its organization, its size and scale-affect my reaction? What do I value in works of art?”…
A critic seeks answers for what is seen in the artwork, how it is designed, what it means, and if it’s a successful work of art.…
The homosexual suggestions of The Picture incite criticisms, mostly of righteous anger and criticism. Throughout the Victorian Era movements for strong moral values dominated opposed to greed, exploitation and cynicism. Wilde’s the novel developed during this time. The 1890 date of publishing of The Picture implies that any kind of homoerotic relationships were very much forbidden. Therefore, the only novel of Oscar Wilde caused a public outcry in a pious Victorian England. The typical idealistic image of behavior and modesty inherent to old-time Victorian England was discredited in the novel. The radical ideas the novel contained evoked a conflict between moral rules of the Victorian society and new controversial concepts raised in the book.…
The first principle of aestheticism, the philosophy of art by which Oscar Wilde lived, is that art serves no other purpose than to offer beauty. Throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty reigns. It is a means to revitalize the wearied…
Johnson, Ellen H. Modern Art and the Object. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. 1976.…
Oscar Wilde’s conversion to Catholicism was a slow—if not incomplete—change of heart. Indeed, it seemed to be the “form, rather than the content” (Ellman 34) that began the author’s dalliance with the religion, as he seemed instinctively drawn to the maryr-happy, scarlet-toned atmosphere of piety due to its artistic implications. It was Catholicism’s deviancy from the normative values of Victorian Anglicanism, not the specificities of its dogma, which attracted Wilde, as its contrast with religious traditionalism paired harmoniously with the mantra of “l’art pour l’art.” Both the texts “De Profundis” and “The Soul of Man under Socialism” present Jesus Christ as the ultimate aesthetic prophet, with Wilde not only rendering the Aesthetic movement…
A man with a copious amount of sin will collapse under the weight of his guilt just as a tortoise with a shell gilded in precious jewels and gold will collapse under the weight of it’s wealth. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and À Rebours (Against Nature) by Joris-Karl Huysmans explore similar ideas. Not only did À Rebours inspire Dorian Gray to leap into his life of sin in The Picture of Dorian Gray in the form of the ‘yellow book,’ but it was also said to have inspired Wilde’s only novel. In both works, the authors explore complementary ideas related to physical sensations, beauty, and art.…
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a writer whose homoerotic texts pushed the social boundaries of the Victorian era. Born to a family of unabashed Irish agnostics, the self-proclaimed "dandy" valued art, fashion, and all things physically beautiful. After receiving a comprehensive education from Oxford, Wilde made a name for himself in London first as a novelist, penning the now famous The Picture of Dorian Gray.…
For many years, and even today, we have depended on the writing of art critics such as Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, and Rosalind Krauss, to name a few, to teach us about art. Their writing has been so influential in the history of art that we have forgotten that they are opinion writers and not of fact; we have many times taken their opinions too literal, taken specifics for granted, when in reality we should be questioning their reflections. They have manipulated our opinion, reactions, and even likeness of art. They defined who the great artists are and through their judgments they have even decided the value of art. But unfortunately for them, post-modern art has dethroned critics with the use of humor, wit, and scale of impact in their art.…
This “mystified” analysis on artwork suggests a rather narrow-minded speculation. Although, to some extent, Berger’s implication that art critiques often venture too far into a land of imagination is valid, I also believe it to be limited to a specific type of critique. Berger’s argument provoked a bit of disappointment as I challenged his ethos and overall reliability. The historical reasoning behind art is definitely important. However, I think that one should be able to…
At first glance, Oscar Wilde’s works The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lady Windermere’s Fan, and The Importance of Being Earnest seem quite disparate. The first is horror, while the latter two are comedies; the first is a novel, while the latter two are plays; the list of the differences between the works could continue. The striking thing about these works however, is their unified theme. Wilde uses the symbolism in each work—images of self in The Picture of Dorian Gray, the fan in Lady Windermere’s Fan, and the use of names in The Importance of Being Earnest—to criticize Victorian society.…
Marilyn Stokstad: “Art in the second half of the nineteenth century.” Art History: Eighteenth to Twenty-First Century art. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc. 2009. Pp. 1033…
Jackson, Holbrook. The Eighteen Nineties: A Review of Art and Ideas at the Close of the Nineteenth Century. New York : A.A. Knopf, 1923…
"The Conflict Between Aestheticism and Morality in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray » Writing Program » Boston University." Boston University. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. .…