“All Art Is Quite Useless” Oscar Wilde

“All Art Is Quite Useless”

Oscar Wilde

(есе по английски език)

If we look practically on art it is obviously useless. Hopefully, human psyche is not that practical and art is an essential part of our lives. Man cannot live only with bread, his soul needs to be fed too and that is the role of art.
We may watch movies, read books, listen to music, go to theatres, cinemas or opera houses or collect paintings. It doesn’t matter which kind of art we prefer as long as we enjoy it. It is important for us because it helps us to forget reality for some time and lead us to other worlds and better times.
Nowadays, we need and consume art daily, for it not only relieves the strain of our daily round but charges us with fresh powers to face up to our duties as well. Remember how totalitarian as well as democratic regimes used art to “strengthen the youth” by playing patriotic marches and anthems everyday in school. Therefore, art seems to be a powerful driver. It not only comforts the soul but raises the spirit.
Undoubtedly, art should be modern and amusing, but it should also have and underlying wisdom. The only meaningful art is the one which contains hidden messages. For example, music albums which we can listen over and over again each time discovering a new tone or idea, such as Der Blutharsch’s “Fire Danger Season”, books which we can read in pre-mature as well as in ripe age and find different morals in, like J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, or operas which evoke certain feeling in us, but we still cannot understand them thoroughly without reading their librettos, such as Richard Wagner’s “Tanhäuser”.
Furthermore, another purpose of art is to help us break away from boredom and enthrall us when our daily routines look drab and dull. It is not altogether a cure for the soul, yet it is quite comforting. Real art could merely be considered a triumph of imagination over practical things.
All in all, Oscar Wilde can’t have meant that art is useless. His works, which are found to be some of the best examples of “Art for the art’s sake” prove that his attitude towards art was not negative at all. His real intention could have been to provoke and make us think over more vital moral issues.