“Aesthetic
movement’ is English artistic movement of the late 19th century. It
was dedicated to the idea of ‘art for art’s sake’. It means art is solely
concerned with beauty and not with any moral or social purpose. The artists
Aubrey Beardsley and James Macnail Whistler and writers Walter pater and Oscar
Wilde were associated wit this movement we can call them exponents of
‘aestheticism’.
(1) The Roots of Aesthetic Movement:-
The
Aesthetic movement was first started in France. Its roots lie in the German
theory which was proposed by Kant (1790). He said that aesthetic contemplation
is disinterested and indifferent to the reality and to the utility of the
beautiful object. it was also influenced by the view Edger Allan Poe. He said
that the supreme work is a ‘poem per se’ it means ‘a poem written solely for
the poem’s sake. The France writers had developed the doctrine that art is art
is the supreme value among the works of man. They thought that art is self
sufficient and has no aim beyond its own perfection. They said that the end of
a work of art is simply to exist and to be beautiful.
French
Aestheticism had emerged as a self-conscious movement. It is often said to date
from Theophile Gautier’s witty defence. Gautier claimed that art lacks all utility.
This idea was developed by Baudelaire, Flaubert, Mallarme and many other
writers. A cry of Aestheticism became the phrase claim usually involved also
the view of life for art’s sake’. The artist is seen as a priest. Like a priest
he abandons the practicle and seft-seeking interest of ordinary existences. The
artist goes in the ‘service of ‘the religion of beauty’. The French belied that
in art for was more important than content. They believed that art had nothing
to do with moral and ethical questions.
(2) Aestheticism and Decadence:-
Some
supporters of Aestheticism also expressed views and values which developed into
a movement called ‘Decadence’. The term was based on the literature and art of
the latter Roman Empire and of Greece in the Byzantine Era. These literature and
art were said to possess the beauties of a culture and art. But then they lost
their liveliness and fallen into decay. It happened to European civilization in
the later 19th century. Gautier had summarized the concepts of the
Decadence. Central idea of these movements was that art is totally opposed to
natures or biological nature and standards of morality. The Decadent writer
cultivates high artifice. He is often strange in his subject matter and style.
(3) Aestheticism in England:-
The
doctrines of French Aestheticism were introduced into England by Walter Pater.
In England in the Victorian Age there was a sort of moral and spiritual
degeneration. Writers like Ruskin and Arnold wanted art to save people from
this. They wanted art to dead with moral subjects. This way they wanted to
effect the spiritual improvement of men. The aesthetes to effect the spiritual
improvements of men. The aesthetes on the other hand, reacted against these
writers. They said that art had nothing to do with morality. Art is its own
end. Pleasure giving quality is final test of art. Their creed was ‘Art for
Art’s Sake’. R.A. Scott James has written that the doctrine of ‘aestheticism’
had its origin in France. It was transplanted to England by whistler. It was carefully
tended by Oscar Wilde and number of ‘Yellow Book Group’. Whistler was provoked
when he heard Ruskin saying that art must be didactic to the people. Whistler
replied that art is not didactic at all. It can not take over the function of
the preacher as it is notmits nature. What have ‘the people’ got to do with
art. The artist was not going to consider the common man with his crude desire.
The artist was concerned with other affairs. He alone could understand it. The
artist saw many things with his mind after long. Search of his vision had
validity for himself alone. He wrote painted and modeled according to his own
ideals. The people who could understand his ways and adjust themselves to his
vision were qualified to share his satisfaction.
(4) The Pleasure in Art is its Only End:-
The
aesthetes declared their truth clearly. According to them pleasure or
satisfaction. The artist can treat any subjects but he remains faithful to
whatever he sees. He always tries to see according to his power and ability. Ruskin
too admitted the truth of this. He wisely warned the ‘Impressionists’ against violating
the sacredness of his own ‘Impression’ Ruskin said
“If
he supposes that once quitting hold of his first thoughts, he may, by
philosophy compose something prettier than he saw, and mightier than he felt,
it is all over with him.”
(4) Two Diversions:-
There
was much profit in a warm advocacy of the disinterestedness of art. But these
champions of aestheticism were different in two respects. First, they
overlooked the fact that all art has its roots somewhere in reality-whatever
the art it be – realistic or impressionistic, romantic or classical,
symbolical, allegorical, expressionist, imagist, futurist or abstract. The art
always seeks objective expression and must have a subject whose nature it is to
be objectified. Thus the neglect of reality is the first error. The second
error is also similar. They believed that the aesthetic faculties which the
artist employs are special and peculiar, and different in kind and degree from
those aesthetic faculties which are employed in other activities. There, the
modern psychology and common sense is against them. There is another fallacy in
this view. There was a view that it is no part or aim of the artist to communicate
his vision. He writes or paints to please only himself and he is utterly in
different to the approval or disapproval of the others. But this is not
completely true.
(5) Aim and Contribution of Aesthetes:-
Thus
we see that the aesthetes did not want art of an inferior or vulgar type. They
wanted the highest kind of art in which the artist shows faithfulness to what
he sees with the best of his power. The contribution of the aesthetes was great
for the mental development of the age. For it Benson has expressed his views.
Benson says that the whole movement has established, so we can look at the part
played by aesthetic school in the mental development of the age. While we
condemn whole heartedly the excess of the advanced disciples. We shall be able
to understand the part that Pater and the other leaders of the movement played.
They sat the deliberate appreciation of beauty. They were concerned with and
training of the perceptions in the differences of the subtle effect of impassioned
art in its right place. They had to do it among the forces which tend to
ennobling of human characters and temperaments.
(5) Exponents of Aestheticism:-
(A) Walter Pater:-
When
we distinguish between art morals, we do not mean that the life of art is
different from other kinds of life. Art is the more itself in proportion as it
is quick with real life. Pater says that the work of great poets is not to
teach lessons or enforce rules or even to stimulate us to notable end. The art
helps to withdraw the thoughts for a little while from the mere machinery of
life. For Pater, the problems of literature are the manner in which it
represents an approach to life. When water pater is searching for the
principles of art, he looks for them in the spiritual life of the artist.
Peter’s work. ‘Marius the Epicurian’ is the story of this rare experience. It
is presented as a continuous evolution the soul experience of a man who lives
artist’s life. ‘Marius’ is a study of that course of life in which experience
is consciously pursued for its own sake. Pater has treated the abstract
principles of art such a way to make them live almost like persons.
(B) Oscar Wilde:-
Wilde’s
version of art for art’s sake is defined by his opposition to three
contemporary attitudes; realism’ utilitarian moralism and the idea of art as
self expression. Against the realism, he says that so fare from imitating life,
art must improve on it. Against the moralist, he says that ‘all art is
perfectly useless’. The world is not likely to be improved by moral propaganda.
Against the idea that we are to look in art for the meaning intended by the
artist, he says that the meaning of any beautiful thing is in the soul of him
who looks at it, as it was in his who wrought it. Art never expresses any thing
but itself.
(C) James Macneil Whistler:-
The
American Painter James Macneil Whistler scorned the narrative painting popular
at the time. He said that subject was not important in painting. The important
things were composition, the arrangement of colours, forms, light and shade. In
his rejection of ‘realism’ whistler carried ‘art for art’s sake’ to a point of
at which Wilde took it up. For Wild realism and moralism is the foe of art.
Like Wilde Whistler believed that art is for minority.
(D) Edger Allan Poe:-
The
first important exponent of ‘aesthetic’ view of poetry is the American poet,
short story writer and literary theorist, Edger Allan Poe (1809-49). His two
essays ‘The Philosophy of Composition’ and ‘The Poetic Principle’ anticipate
art for art’s sake and the idea of ‘pure poetry’. Poe attacks ‘the heresy of
the didactic. Poe gave subject-matter a subordinate role.
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