Preface Reflection

Stephen Simmons-Uvin
Ap English/Mr. George
3/4/10
preface reflection

Wildes opinion on art is interestingly described in the preface where he says that it is neither good or bad, or beautiful or ugly, but that it is basically neutral and completely useless. Despite his intreaging take on art and spectators of art, one part that really stuck out to me was in the end when Wilde says, "It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors"(Wilde 2).I believe the reason it was so appealing to me was because it reminded me of my childhood, visiting tons of museams and going to a hand full of artshows with my grandma. She would always ask me one question, which I still dread to this day, "how does this[the art] make you feel?" I would always reply in the most positive way possible to hide my boredom, but I never trully took that question seriously. I joke about it now but I never truly understood what she would be getting at. As Wilde states, the spectator mirrors the painting and the spectator determines what is good art and bad art and chooses which emotions appeal to him/her through paintings and art. I never understood what my grandmother was really getting at, but Wilde offers a very fair argument and a very insightful one as well. Art is what we make it out to be, it is neither good or bad because we all make it out to be something different, so it is simply useless and a net for our emotions.