The Critic As Artist

Description

By (author) Wilde, Oscar; Introduction by Bracewell, Michael

:

In The Critic as Artist, arguably the most complete exploration of his aesthetic thinking, and certainly the most entertaining, Oscar Wildeharnesses his famous wit to demolish the supposed boundary betweenart and criticism.

Subtitled Upon the Importance of Doing Nothing and DiscussingEverything, the essay takes the form of a leisurely dialogue between two characters: Ernest, who insists upon Wilde’s own belief in art’sfreedom from societal mandates and values, and a quizzical Gilbert. With his playwright’s ear for dialogue, Wilde champions idleness andcontemplation as prerequisites to artistic cultivation. Beyond the well-known dictum of art for art’s sake, Wilde’s originality lays argument forthe equality of criticism and art. For him, criticism is not subject to thework of art, but can in fact precede it: the artist cannot create withoutengaging his or her critical faculties first. And, as Wilde writes, “To thecritic the work of art is simply a suggestion for a new work of his own.”

The field of art and criticism should be open to the free play of themind, but Wilde plays seriously, even prophetically. Writing in 1891, he foresaw that criticism would have an increasingly important role as the need to make sense of what we see increases with the complexities of modern life. It is only the fine perception and explication of beauty,Wilde suggests, that will allow us to create meaning, joy, empathy, and peace out of the chaos of facts and reality.

Biographical note:
Oscar Wilde(1854–1900) was an Irish poet and playwright who became one of London’smost popular writers in the early 1890s. Graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, andlater Magdalen College, Oxford, Wilde embarked on a hugely successful lecture tour ofAmerica in 1882. Two early melodramatic tragedies,Vera; or, The Nihilists(1880) andThe Duchess of Padua(1883), were written during these years, paving the way for laterstage classics such asA Woman of No Importance(1893),An Ideal Husband(1895),andThe Importance of Being Earnest(1895). Wilde also continued to write proseand criticism for popular daily newspapers such asThe Pall Mall Gazette, as well asThe Woman’s World, a Victorian women’s magazine that he edited between 1887 and1889. Though often controversial, his flair for journalism and nose for scandal ensuredthese writings were widely read. His bold essays on aesthetic philosophy, publishedtogether in the collectionIntentions(1891), were known for their wit and play withmotif. Together with his plays and poems, these writings on art remain important andinfluential meditations of the nature of art criticism itself.

Michael Bracewellis a British writer and novelist who has written extensively on modernand contemporary art and culture. He is a contributor toBurlingtonandfriezemagazines.His recent contributions include essays forBridget Riley: Paintings and Related Work(2010),The Rise of David Bowie 1972–1973(2016), andJoy Division(2017), as wellasMichaël Borremans: Fire from the Sun(2018) for David Zwirner Books. His selectedwritings on visual art,The Space Between, were published by Ridinghouse in 2012.