The moment Art surrenders its imaginative medium it surrenders everything.
 Oscar Wilde, Intentions (1891). copy citation

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Author Oscar Wilde
Source Intentions
Topic art media
Date 1891
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/887/887-h/887-h.htm

Context

“All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals. Life and Nature may sometimes be used as part of Art’s rough material, but before they are of any real service to art they must be translated into artistic conventions. The moment Art surrenders its imaginative medium it surrenders everything. As a method Realism is a complete failure, and the two things that every artist should avoid are modernity of form and modernity of subject-matter. To us, who live in the nineteenth century, any century is a suitable subject for art except our own.” source