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Single Idea 22715

[filed under theme 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 Ref

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.

The 14 ideas with the same theme [value of art for individuals and in society]:

2135 Truth is closely related to proportion [Plato]
2163 Artists should be excluded from a law-abiding community, because they destroy the rational mind [Plato]
20394 The purpose of art is to reveal to Spirit its own nature [Hegel, by Davies,S]
21794 The main purpose of art is to express the unity of human life [Hegel]
20415 Art forms a bridge between the sensuous world and the world of pure thought [Hegel]
8116 The will-less contemplation of art brings a liberation from selfhood [Schopenhauer, by Gardner]
4174 Man is more beautiful than anything else, and the loftiest purpose of art is to reveal his nature [Schopenhauer]
7276 All art is quite useless [Wilde]
23933 Aesthetic contemplation is the best and most intense mental state [Bell,C]
23935 Aesthetic experience is an exaltation which increases the possibilities of life [Bell,C]
20406 Art clarifies the artist's mind and feelings, thus leading to self-knowledge [Collingwood, by Davies,S]
20436 Art leads to mental health, and mental clarity [Beardsley,M, by Carroll,N]
22715 Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake [Murdoch]
7980 In modern times, being useless is the essential aesthetic ingredient for an object [Baudrillard]