All art is quite useless, November 2004
At the start of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde stated that "All art is quite useless".
Despite its uselessness, art has goals. That is to say, an artist has goals he wishes to fulfil by producing art.
There are reasons an artist paints, for example. Firstly, a painting is a mechanism of expression;
the artist has something to say and the painting is his way of saying it. Secondly, a painting is something
that people will want to look at; when they look at it, they feel edified or enriched.
The first goal, I feel, is very much for the artist alone. If an idea is clear enough to be put into words,
typically that is how it is expressed. Thus a painting is typically not such a clear idea that anyone can
look at it and understand the message. A painting I produce may be the expression of an idea; a memory,
for example, an opinion, a feeling. It is unlikely to recall the same memory, opinion, or feeling for another person,
and neither should it.
I believe you should not attempt to discover what the artist is trying to express with a painting.
When anyone other than the artist looks at a painting, the purpose of the painting is the second goal I described.
What do you think of when looking at the painting? What does it make you feel? Do you like it?
You do not need to know why you like or dislike a painting. You do not need to 'get' the painting;
to understand what the artist is trying to express.
Furthermore, the artist should not attempt to lay out his idea in an obvious and easy to interpret form.
This simply limits the work; constrains the artist's expression. If you want to express 'regret',
you should not think how best to express regret to the general populace. You should not ask, "Does this say 'regret' to you?"
If people do not feel 'regret' when they look at it, that's okay. They have not failed to interpret the image.
Thus, the title of a painting should be for the artist alone. Knowing the title of a painting will make you try to
interpret the work to fit the title; to discover the artist's goal. To discover this goal is to know something
about the artist. I prefer to think of the painting as independent of the artist. They should be appreciated
for what they are to the observer, what feelings they elicit or memories they recall; not as nuggets of
information about the artist.
It is a shame that there is so much art about that neglects the second goal in favour of the first.
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