Thursday, February 29, 2024

art for art's sake


a term oscar wild made famous: l'art pour l'art. 

a view known as aestheticism, which is synonymous with symbolism or decadence (decadentismo in Italy). 

what does it mean really? the artist doesn't do art for any other reason than art's sake.

art is autarchic!  

the movement happens from around 1870-1901. it's generally considered to have ended with the trial of Oscar Wilde.

Ramon Casas, Decadent Youth, 1899

Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, 1919

Dora Carrington, Litton Strachey, 1918

James Ensor, Dunkards, 1883

Gustav Klimt, The Virgin, 1913