Artwork of the Day #49 - L’art pour l’art [possibly NSFW]

in art •  8 years ago 

Todays artwork is called "l'art pour l'art" which translates to "art for art's sake" in english and "ars gratia artis" in latin.

It expresses a philosophy that the value of art is divorced from any didactic, moral, or utilitarian function. Such works are sometimes described as "complete in itself", a concept that has been expanded to embrace "inner-directed" or "self-motivated" human beings.
[Partially taken from wikipedia cc-by-sa]

There is also some criticism to this concept, e.g. from Friedrich Nietzsche.

[He] claimed that there is no art for art’s sake [and] asked:

"…what does all art do? does it not praise? glorify? select? highlight? By doing all this it strengthens or weakens certain valuations….Art is the great stimulus to life: how could one understand it as purposeless, as aimless, as l'art pour l'art?”
[Twilight of the Idols, “Skirmishes of an Untimely Man,” 24]

What do you think about the value or incentives of art?
Let me know in the comments!

@shortcut

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A difficult question, I keep going in circles with my thoughts on this.

Yes indeed, I'm pretty much feeling the same. On one hand I'm thinking that it might be possible to do art just with no other reason than doing it (which is already an incentive). On the other hand as soon as art is brought to an audience it isn't possible to seperate the work from the expectations and interpretations of the observers. Maybe this area of tension is part of the mystery of art.

It also somehow reminded me of the question if the hen or the egg was first, which you can see expressed in this piece.

Well I was thinking about the Arts influence on our lives. Do we model our lives around art or art around our lives?
Our fashions, the way we model our homes- interior and exterior. The cars we drive, the tv we watch, the music that we listen to, the presentation of the food we eat. Does Art influence trend and fashion (are these things actually forms of the Arts?). Or do we influence the Art? It is so chicken and egg!

I believe that art is some sort of power or spirit, that reflects or mirrors the symmetry (and even the chaos) we find everywhere in our universe. If we are reminded of that greater connection, we consider this mirror being art.

Wow!