An Essay on Art for Art's Sake

byAsad Imran Shah •
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Introduction

There is a heated debate on the subject of arts for art's sake and arts for morality or life's sake. This debate has formed two different groups with different opinions. One group is called Moralists. Moralists believe that a writer can and should influence his readers through his writing. They also say that art can be either a food or a poison. Thus prioritizing moral lessons and morality in arts. While the other group is called Aesthetes. They emphasize that a writer's work should only give pleasure and entertainment to the readers. If a writer has the ability to influence his readers, he should not even try to. 

Essay on Art for Art's Sake

What is Art

The word 'Art' is derived from a Latin word 'ars' which means a skill. While a skill is the productive practice of something that is either useful or beautiful. Productive skills are, then, divided into two major groups, Arts and Science. Arts is a practical form of a productive skill while science theorizes something and then provides a knowledge base. For instance, if a carpenter makes a chair, he is performing an art. If he writes on the subject of making a chair from scratch, he is contributing to science. 

Fine Arts

Fine Arts is also a sub-branch of Arts but it mainly emphasizes on the esthetic beauty of an object or an emotion. It may have some utilitarian purpose hidden in it but it should mostly serve its joyful purpose of providing esthetic beauty. For instance, architecture is one of the Fine Arts that is both esthetically beautiful because of its pleasing looks and marvellous structure and symmetry but it also provides shelter, thus exhibiting its utilitarian purpose. 

Fine Arts are further divided into its seven forms. Those forms are further divided into 3 main categories: 

  1. Shaping Arts: Architecture, Sculpture and Painting
  2. These three arts are called Shaping Arts because we can see, feel and touch the existence of such Arts. 
  3. Speaking Arts: Poetry and Music are called Speaking Arts because they are either spoken or heard. 

Performing Arts: Dance and Drama are known as Performing Arts because both of them are performed on the stage and in theatre. 

Aestheticism

Aestheticism was a French Movement that strived to give importance to aesthetic pleasure and beauty. This nineteenth-century movement was based upon the word esthetic which is derived from a Greek word aisthetikos which means beauty perceivable by sensation (five senses). The followers of this movement were called Esthetes. It was them who introduced the phrase "L'art pour l'art" which means "Art for Art's Sake". 

Although the pioneer of the slogan was Victor Cousin but it was Gautier who put meaning in the movement. Gautier emphasizes on the importance of esthetic pleasure as thus,

A town merely interests me for its buildings. Let the inhabitants be utterly vile and the town a haunt of crime. What does this not signify to me so long as I am not assassinated by the town's people during looking at the buildings. 

Here Gautier has used building as the symbol of Arts. 

A French tragedian and novelist Flaubert suggests that no great poet has ever drawn conclusions. 

Aestheticism in England

Aestheticism in England arrived in the late nineteenth century also known as the Naughty Nineties. It was a revolt against the conventional and moral standards set by Victorian Writers in the past. The writers of the Naughty Nineties removed morality from their writings and they only focused on the aesthetic values of the art in general. Their efforts were greatly liked by the University scholars and students equally. It was introduced in English Literature by an Oxford professor, Walter Peter and Oscar Wilde carried his lineage further through the might of his pen. 

It is worth noticing that the Moralists were interested in the Subject Matter, thought and imagination in a literary work. While Aesthetes were drawn towards technique, form and diction (aesthetic elements) in a writing. 

Walter Pater was a renowned English Critic who published a book, Studies in the History of the Renaissance in 1873. In this book, he looked through the Renaissance movement from the lens of aestheticism. But it was his sheer misunderstanding as Renaissance movement had achieved more prominent traits other than its aesthetic nature. Walter even goes to the extent that a critic should scrutinize a piece of literature how good its form is instead of its subject matter. Also, his criticism on Wordsworth's poetry is limited because he only sees the aesthetic value of Wordsworth's poems but these poems have some morals in it. 

Oscar Wilde further continues the services of Walter Pater through the practical implications in literature. He says,

There is no such thing as moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

That is purely the voice of an aesthete. He adds further,

No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. 

In the preface to the same book (The Picture of Dorian Gray), he declares

All art is quite useless.

So, it is quite obvious that Oscar Wilde does appear as an ardent supporter of aestheticism on the surface level. But it is clear that Wilde's writings had hidden morals in it. For example, The Importance of Being Earnest may apparently look like a light hearted comedy but if we peep under layers, it will appear as a satire on the follies and absurdities of the aristocratic class. But the short story of the Happy Prince does not provide any aesthetic pleasure rather it is a direct attack on the people sitting on the thrones. 

There were also two well-known periodicals that would publish the work of Aesthetes. They were Yellow Book and Sevoile. The Yellow Book began its publishing from 1894 to 1897. Different short stories poems, essays and even illustrations by the Aesthetes were published in it. 

Some other renowned English Aesthetes were Charles Conder, Ernest Dowson, WB Yeats, Arthur Symons who sparked through the very movement. 

Criticism

The French slogan has been criticized by many writers as well as influencers for its limited approach to Arts in general and literature in particular. The first to scrutinize this movement is Friedrich Nietzsche who suggests that there is no 'Art for Art's Sake', he argues: 

When the purpose of moral preaching and of improving man has been excluded from art, it still does not follow by any means that art is altogether purposeless, aimless, senseless. 

He wants to stress the fact that it is impossible to separate morality from literature as it has to be exhibited in some way or the other, depending on the context of his writing. 

Socialists and Marxists proclaimed that Art for Art's Sake was an empty phrase and art should be used to spread socialist ideas. Diego Rivera, who had been a member of the Mexican Communist Party stated that the slogan could further extend the social divide between poor and the rich. He argued that it would hammer the final nail in the coffin of Art (literature) as a social tool for the "cause of revolution". It would serve as a currency, that would only be enjoyed through a few (rich) people. 

Sources and Suggested Readings

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