surrealistfishPDX

I don’t think art and life are one and the same. But the question of what art is is dictated by so much. I was re-reading the preface to Dorian Gray the other day

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

*******************************

Oh that’s beautiful

I disagree with you that all art is useless, art can rally a people to revolution, and give solace to an otherwise mundane existence. At the same time, I think sometimes there are more important things than art. I started college as an art history major, and then I realized that. Art also carried enormous privilege: who can afford to make it and who can afford to see it