Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself.
-Henry Miller
2 comments:
Ooh! the argument against "art for art's sake." Not bad. I was thinking maybe this is what leads to the modern works where "the subject is the medium." YOu know, a big painting that's not a painting of anything -just a bunch of paint.
yes!
i used to love the impressionist painters, but then i went to an exhibit right after reading Ruskin's "Preface" to Modern Painters, and all anyone was talking about was "look at the use of so-and-so's color" or "so-and-so's technique"--it was all about the artist. ruskin, decades before the impressionists, was railing against this sort of "art" because it detracts from the subject, and is basically a form of egotism.
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