Carol Vogeldec

In the preface to his only novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Oscar Wilde famously proclaimed that “all art is quite useless.” The statement seemed so intriguing to a contemporary, an Oxford University student named Bernulf Clegg, that in 1891 he wrote Wilde asking him where in his other work he “may find developed that idea of the total uselessness of all art.”
Wilde, not directly answering Clegg’s question, responded: “Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct or influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility.

4 thoughts on “Carol Vogeldec

  1. shinichi Post author

    The Letters of Oscar Wilde

    by Carol Vogeldec

    (Dec 4, 2008)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/arts/design/05voge.html

    In the preface to his only novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Oscar Wilde famously proclaimed that “all art is quite useless.” The statement seemed so intriguing to a contemporary, an Oxford University student named Bernulf Clegg, that in 1891 he wrote Wilde asking him where in his other work he “may find developed that idea of the total uselessness of all art.”

    Wilde, not directly answering Clegg’s question, responded: “Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct or influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility.”

    The letters of Wilde and Clegg, along with some 50 handwritten pages, including nine manuscripts of Wilde’s poems and the earliest surviving letter from Wilde to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas, are contained in a red leatherbound volume that was recently given to the Morgan Library & Museum by Lucia Moreira Salles, a Brazilian philanthropist who had owned it for more than two decades. Its whereabouts were unknown to scholars for half a century.

    “The contents are remarkable,” said William M. Griswold, director of the Morgan. He added that the gift was particularly significant because, in addition to its collection of letters by Wilde, the Morgan also owns the earliest manuscript of “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”

    Mr. Griswold said he learned of the volume’s existence shortly after Christine Nelson, a curator of manuscripts at the Morgan, was contacted by Merlin Holland, Wilde’s only grandson, who has written several books about his grandfather. Mr. Holland was well known at the Morgan, which in 2001 organized the exhibition “Oscar Wilde: A Life in Six Acts,” in collaboration with the British Library.

    Mrs. Moreira Salles owned the volume with her husband, Walter Moreira Salles, a Brazilian banker and diplomat who died in 2001. The book includes a manuscript of Wilde’s short story for children “The Selfish Giant,” handwritten by Wilde’s wife, Constance.

    About two years ago Mrs. Moreira Salles contacted Mr. Holland to see if he would be interested in editing a facsimile of the book. He in turn told her about the Morgan’s extensive holdings of Wilde’s letters and manuscripts. This summer, Mrs. Moreira Salles decided to donate the book to the Morgan.

    “It was one of those happy surprises,” Ms. Nelson said. “It was last seen in a 1953 London sale catalog.”

    The Morgan plans to show the volume in an exhibition of acquisitions from April 17 to Aug. 9. MORE FROM A COLLECTION

    Wilde’s writings are not the only gift scheduled to go on view at the Morgan. From Jan. 23 through May 3, more than 80 drawings that have been promised to the museum by Eugene V. Thaw, a longtime Morgan trustee and benefactor, and his wife, Clare, will occupy the museum’s west galleries. It is the fifth exhibition devoted to Mr. Thaw’s collection since 1975, when he first promised his drawings to the institution.

    What distinguishes this exhibition from the others is that all the works have been bought since 2002. “Each of these shows has been very different in character as Gene’s taste has evolved, and as the market has evolved,” Mr. Griswold said.

    In addition to 19th-century drawings, like a rare black chalk rendering Monet executed of his future wife, Camille Doncieux, in 1865, there are also several scholarly discoveries. One is “A Wedding Procession.” For decades this drawing from the mid-1800s had been attributed to the German painter Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and was thought to have been a study for a fresco commissioned by King Ludwig I for his Munich residence.

    But Colin J. Bailey, a scholar of 19th-century German art, had his doubts. Thinking that the drawing’s style was more similar to that of a Munich painter and draughtsman named Ernst Kuster, he was able to confirm his hunch by studying the artist’s monogram.

    The show also has a strong group of 20th-century works, by artists including Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keeffe, Ellsworth Kelly and Agnes Martin, that fills an important gap in the Morgan’s collection. Among the stars of the group is a 1944 gouache of an abstract ram by Pollock, the third work by the artist that Mr. Thaw will give to the museum.

    “We already have a sketchbook that Pollock used from 1950 to 1953,” said Rhoda Eitel-Porter, head of the Morgan’s department of drawings and prints, “as well as an untitled drawing from 1943 that the artist gave to Peggy Guggenheim.”

    Mr. Thaw produced Pollock’s catalogue raisonné, and he is often offered the best of his works when they become available. “Everyone knows he has a special affinity for his work,” Ms. Eitel-Porter said.

    BROOKLYN’S TWITTER PLAN

    Inventing original ways to capture a younger audience has been an eternal goal at most museums. One of the latest efforts, starting at the Brooklyn Museum on Jan. 3, is an initiative using social networking sites like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter to lure 20- and 30-somethings to become members of the museum.

    “This younger crowd comes to us online and to our First Saturdays,” said William Cary, Brooklyn’s membership manager, referring to the first Saturday of every month, when admission and entertainment at the museum are free from 5 to 11 p.m. “Our challenge is to get this group to become members and to get involved with the museum.”

    Brooklyn is offering a new tier of membership, 1stfans, which costs $20 a year, as opposed to $55 for individual members. While there is no age restriction, this cheaper membership does not include free admission to the museum (aside from First Saturdays) nor does it offer previews to special exhibitions.

    But 1stfans members will be able to attend special events only for them that are timed to the First Saturdays. On Jan. 3, for example, studio assistants who work for the Brooklyn street artist Swoon will be making prints from paper supplied by 1stfans members.

    Future activities will include a discussion with a staff member from the museum’s conservation department about objects that have been restored recently. Mr. Cary said that during the event 1stfans members will not only be able to meet one another and speak with the conservator, but they will also be encouraged to take photographs of the objects that they can post on Facebook or Flickr. (The museum will also have presences on Facebook and Flickr, exclusively available to 1stfan members, where they can read about museum events.)

    Another online attraction for 1stfans members: every month a different contemporary artist will write a message available only to them on Twitter, the microblogging service. Members will also be able to interact with curators on the museum’s Web site, brooklynmuseum.org.

    “It’s creating a two-way relationship with these people,” Mr. Cary said. “We will find these 1stfans on whatever networking site they use and have an ongoing discussion with them online.”

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  2. shinichi Post author

    (sk)

    Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct or influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility.

    芸術は役に立たない、だって芸術のすることは単に気分を作るだけだから。芸術はどうやっても行動を起こしたり行動に影響を与えたりということにつながらない。芸術はなによりも不毛、そして芸術の喜びの雰囲気は不毛なのだ。

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  3. shinichi Post author

    We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

    All art is quite useless.

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  4. shinichi Post author

    The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

    To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

    Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

    The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

    To define is to limit.

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