 Breaking news
2013
The
OSCAR statue:
It must be Oscar Wilde!
A new book by Cecilia Jorgensen will explain why the
name and design of the famous
Academy Award statuette, created by
Metro-Goldwin-Mayer in 1928-1929, probably was
inspired by Oscar.Wilde.
He was a doctrinaire of the concept «.Art.for.Art’s.sake.»,
MGM’s official motto.
So far, only anecdotal and revealing suggestions
have been put forward, including Louis B.
Mayer’s executive secretary exclaiming: “It
looks like King Oscar II of Sweden”.
>>
Oscar II |
The Academy |
AMPAS history
>> Any better
candidates than Oscar Wilde? |
Jules Janin 1832
«.Art
for Art’s sake.»
The French writer and critic
Jules Janin (1804-1874) should be seen as the
originator of the concept «.Art
for Art’s sake.»
that he articulated in an article on Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique
in Journal des Débats on 1.October
1832: "... l'art pour l'art en lui-même et sans
trop s'inquéter des susceptibilités de la critique".¹
Some sources credit Edgar Allan
Poe (1809-1849), Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) and others for being the
first to write or adopt the phrase "L'art pour l'art".
However, they cite Poe 1850 as an
example, and Gautier only published the "doctrine"
in editions of his journal L'Artiste since 1856.
¹ Jules Janin wrote an obituary notice in Journal des
Débats on Chopin (cited by
Frederick Niecks, 1888). |
1889-1890
Oscar Wilde on Art
Oscar Wilde's essays The Decay of Lying
(1889) and
The Critic As Artist (1890) as well as
his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray
(1890)¹ discuss the
meaning of Art. For.example:
- "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates
Life"
- "Art does not hurt us"
- "Music is a perfect type of art"
- "Music can never reveal its ultimate secret"
- "It is through art, and art only, that we can
...."
- "The aim of art is simply to create a mood"
- "Art does not address herself to specialists"
¹ "It
inevitably suggests Oscar Wilde ...".
>> Oscar Wilde
works | Countdown
2014 |
