“ Artists are not Integral to the Society ’ s Morale ”
Oscar Wilde controversially claimed that " all art is quite useless ," which indeed puts the artist in a peculiar relationship with society if that statement is valid after all . The public has no material need for art , and nothing will ever compel a person to attend a concert in the same way that they will be compelled to buy food , say . Furthermore , art can involve effort to appreciate , which makes it all the less something which society might seek out . These issues ultimately become the responsibility of the artist .
While saying art is useless can come across as harsh on artists , there is no denying that only a handful of persons turn to art pieces to teach them some social etiquettes . When an audience comes across any piece of art , there will be admirations thrown towards the work , and some of the audience trying to get the pieces at insane amounts just to have them at the comfort of their homes where the larger society cannot get in touch with the art work .
Burdening artists with the task of coming up with art works that should shape the society can be said to be unfair to artists , because even though every once in a while an artist may come up with works having strong meaning , art has always been about expressing one ’ s self . So if expressing one ’ s self coincides with the society ’ s longing for an art piece with strong meaning , then good . Otherwise expressing one ’ s self can often lead to producing art that has no use to the bigger society .
Bestowing artists with social responsibilities can sometimes hold the artist back from creating what he / she has in mind , however letting artists be themselves can see them produce works that seamlessly serve other purposes to a near perfection ; aesthetic and fancy purposes were always the major inspiration behind making art , letting artists focus on these kind of works will see them come through with beautiful works , the ones that are actually meant for staying at home and beautifying the premises .
As far as rights go , compelling artists to produce socially responsible art can be called infringing upon the rights of these individuals . They are only a part of the society doing what they love , and they should be appreciated for this rather than maligned . The society ’ s sense of moral is the responsibility of the society ( everyone ), the quicker we accept this , then the quicker we can come to terms and let artists go back to making art works without any pulling back .
Authored by : Fidel Webber
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