All Art is Quite Useless
Posted by Kathleen Benton on Oct 26, 2008
“All Art is Quite Useless” is the title I have chosen for my blog. This line is not my creation, in case you are not familiar with the quote. It was written by Oscar Wilde in the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray. I suppose I chose this title in an attempt to be provocative and ironic about this blog. For it is through this web site and its accompanying blog that I am intent on creating an art business out of the fact that all art is indeed quite useful in many ways.
I won’t go into a lengthy analysis of what Oscar Wilde meant. Writers much more capable than I have already done so. But Wilde wasn’t making a dismissive statement about art. Far from it. Essentially Wilde was responding to a philosophical debate which preoccupied most the 19th century. The idea which embodies the discourse had been evolving slowly ever since the time of the Renaissance. That is the notion of “art for art’s sake”. The Realists, Romanticists, and Impressionists of Wilde’s day wanted to rid art and artists from the requirement of having any other ambition, purpose, or responsibility to anything other than the artist’s own expression. The idea of “art for art’s sake” was used to protest the power of established social groups and institutions which would impose their standards or censorship on art and artists. These groups often decried or banned any art which was perceived to represent ideas they found particularly threatening to their own conventions.
Artists are now rarely influenced by their historical sponsors, the monarchs, popes, institutions, or wealthy patrons who supervised their activity and content. Now most people think of artists as a fringe group of specialists working to express themselves. Often artists are imagined like a caricature of Van Gogh, quite removed from conventional life, a bohemian toiling away in seclusion, and very poor. Today’s fine artists do work for themselves and to their own beat, putting the results out for public scrutiny in various venues to see if their work produces enthusiasm and success. If they are lucky, they become very rich and their work becomes very sought-after.
This idea of artistic independence has become quite accepted now. But even today the debate is sparked anew when artists and institutions collide. Museums supported by tax money mount an exhibition that sometimes citizens find unsuitable. Films are boycotted when a social group finds content offensive. Books are still banned in some places. The idea of “art for art’s sake” still makes for lively discussion, but for the most part, artists now make what they want with nobody stopping them. But even though artists are now free to make art as they please, they still must try to integrate their activity and products into society in order for it to have meaning to anyone else.
This description fits the artist creating “fine art”. On the other hand, there is also the activity of commercial artists. These artists are usually employed by manufacturers like Hallmark or the Danbury Mint, design and advertising companies, or retail suppliers. Commercial artists make products for mass consumption. They focus their creativity on things which will have universal appeal. In some ways, they still follow the traditional role of the artist. They answer to a company board of directors. We assume that commercial artists are different from fine artists and that each has their own groups of consumers.
As a result of the changes in the role of the artist, most people seem to find the notion of hiring an artist for their own purposes, fine art or commercial, to be completely beyond their imagination and means. But now we have entered the age of the Internet. Here the ideas of communication, commerce, business services, specialists, and accessibility are now all tossed into the World-wide Web to be reconsidered and made new again. Through the Internet everyone has the possibility of expressing themselves to the world. Anyone can be engaged in the sale of that expression as well. Through the Internet consumers also have the ability to hire the services and/or buy the products of anyone in the entire world. People are no longer dependent on what is stocked at their nearby store or provided by local business.
So it is with this understanding of possibilities of the Internet that here I submit my artwork for your evaluation. I have named my site optimistically, You Can Hire an Artist. In the site I have incorporated all the various aspects of my artistic activity, in both fine and commercial art. I invite you to find in my artwork a piece that speaks to you, knowing it is made more affordable by being offered directly from me rather than through a gallery. I hope that you will consider using my artistic skills to realize personal commissions. You have the opportunity here to celebrate your life and the lives of those that are important to you with the creation of one-of-a-kind objects that express personal milestones, relationships, and interests. I encourage the business owner to think of your establishment as extraordinary enough to require the use of distinctive, custom-made visual campaigns and accessories. In doing so you can make your place of business a profitable and inviting experience, to be considered by your customers as in a class by itself.
Together we can take the initiative to produce artwork that will result in your own pride and joy at being part of the creative process. I think this is a way of making art quite useful, don’t you?
Kathleen Benton
(Click on images to enlarge and read details. Click again to return to page.)
Oscar Wilde photograph by Napoleon Sarony, c 1882. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
Jimmy Carter and Andy Warhol, 1977. White House Staff Photographers, National Archives and Records Administration
Marcel Duchamp. Fountain, 1917. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image Source: www.beatmuseum.org
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It is kind of sad that an so good an artist was not appreciated during his lifetime.
Thank you for your comment. Noting your username I must assume you are referring to my brief mention of Vincent Van Gogh rather than Oscar Wilde. Nor could you refer to Andy Warhol or Marcel Duchamp whose works I have used as illustrations.
It is often the case that while artists must work to make their art they must also work to promote themselves in order to be successful and appreciated. Some artists enjoy that aspect of the business as much as the art-making. Others find it a bothersome but necessary component in order to make a living.
There are few people who do not know the story of Vincent Van Gogh’s life of hardship. In Van Gogh’s case it seems his nervous instability prevented his participation in the social aspect that art promotion requires. His brother Theo, who was an art dealer, did all that he could to support Vincent and sell his work. Had Vincent not died at such an early age due to a self-inflicted wound perhaps some later commercial success might have helped him become more stable and enjoy some recognition. But we cannot know what might have been. I don’t think the knowledge his tragic story makes his paintings any more brilliant. The appreciation of Van Gogh’s emphasis of surface, rhythm, and vivid color only happened after Van Gogh’s lifetime.
Once artists choose to make work independently from the support of patrons it seems to become necessary that they also take on the role of salesperson. As much as dealers can try to promote an artist’s work, it seems the artist must be involved in sales as well, especially if their work is not already widely recognized and sold. Most collectors want to have some social interactions with the artists their money supports. They want to feel like their patronage is aiding in the promotion of the artist’s career.
Oscar Wilde was celebrated not only in the UK but made a quite popular lecturing tour in America. He was given most acclaim for his plays. Wilde too met with an early death at age 46.
Andy Warhol was certainly recognized during his lifetime, not only making paintings and drawings that sold quite well but he also published a magazine and released a few movies and produced records. He was the darling of the celebrities that were the subjects of his work. He had a variety of social and business circles. Warhol died at age 59.
Marcel Duchamp made relatively few works of art, but what he did make was influential to the thinking of the time. He guided the choices of many modern art dealers and collectors as well, including Peggy Guggenheim. Duchamp basically gave up making art when he was 32 years old to play chess. He later did make one additional work of art, Etant donnés, which he worked on secretly for twenty years from 1946 to 1966. He died in 1968 at the age of 81.