Single Idea 22715

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 6. Value of Art]

Full Idea

The work of the great artists shows up 'art-for-art's-sake' as a flimsy frivolous doctrine.

Gist of Idea

Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake

Source

Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.218)

Book Reference

Murdoch,Iris: 'Existentialists and Mystics', ed/tr. Conradi,Peter [Chatto and Windus 1997], p.218


A Reaction

She keeps referring to tragedy (as the greatest art), but it is hard to see how we learn love and morality from a great pot or a great abstract painting. Wilde makes the doctrine frivolous, but I think it contains a degree of truth. Music.