Art Imitating Life or Life Imitating Art Phrase. life imitates art. Expresses the notion that an event in the real world was inspired by creative work.
“The Decay of Lying” — Oscar Wilde Life imitates art far more than art imitates life
Why did Oscar Wilde say life imitates art?
The idea is that our perception of life is changed by art, so that nature sometimes seems to imitate paintings we have seen before, giving us the emotions we felt when looking at those paintings. When that happens, life seems to imitate art.
One of Wilde’s core ideas is that painters like as Turner are to blame for our generation’s lack of appreciation for the natural beauty of fog in the environment around us since these artists depicted such beauty in their work.
Another well-known instance of this phenomena is Nietzsche’s reaction to the paintings of Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. As a direct result of the work of these two painters, Poussin and Claude Lorrain, Nietzsche experienced the most profound emotions when he was in the presence of paintings. As a consequence of this, whenever he came upon a breathtaking picture of nature after that point, he imagined it to be a painting by Poussin or Claude Lorrain, as his writings demonstrate:
Art Imitating Life or Life Imitating Art
What does it signify when life imitates art?
The Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde promoted the anti-mimesis hypothesis. It’s critical to grasp what mimesis is in order to comprehend this. Mimesis is a phrase from Ancient Greek that describes the process of creating works of art. They mainly consist of mimicry, imitation, receptivity, representation, the act of expressing oneself, and acting similarly.
An opposing view to Aristotelian mimesis, which employs analytical techniques and logical logic, is called anti-mimesis. Aristotle stated that “it is a natural human inclination to develop art that imitates the people, places, and events around them” in his book Poetics.
“The Aristotelian idea of mimesis entailed not only copying, but addition—the poet adds symbolism and structure that helps their audience derive meaning from work,” according to Billy Collings and his lecture in Master Class.
Oscar Wilde disagreed with him, yet he thought that art imitates life. Things exist because of how we see them, according to Wilde, and our perceptions are shaped by the artistic movements that have impacted us. His theories on the issue were based on the assumption that art alters how we view the world. Therefore, when we see beauty in nature, it is because of an emotional response we had to an earlier picture or piece of art.
The feelings we experienced while viewing those artworks are coming back to us now. That is when art imitates life rather than the other way around. When it comes to addressing the subject of art, Plato had two theories. The Republic, which seems to be the hypothesis that agrees with Plato’s position on the matter, may include one.
This idea holds that as art imitates material objects, it is always a copy of a copy and takes us even further away from reality and into illusion. Plato believed that while art may evoke strong emotions, it may also be hazardous. His other thesis claimed that artists were prophets because they improved versions of “the True” through divine inspiration.
What if the artist’s imagined image of a forest full of lush green trees was superior to the burned-out, lifeless forest that served as his inspiration? Therefore, both ideas were based on the premise that imitation is the essence of art. According to Plato, art replicates everyday things and occurrences.
How would you respond to this?
This seems to be one of those circumstances when two things may coexist. Maybe since I’ve seen Sunlight and Shadow: The Newbury Marshes, the sun appears so beautiful as I’m strolling around the lake at night. It makes me think of the painting’s beautiful hues, water, and greenery.
Maybe that piece of art showed me there was beauty in the way colors flowed over the sky and mingled with the clouds. Perhaps Martin Johnson Heade, an American artist most renowned for his renderings of nature, seascapes, and salt marshes, was moved by the beauty of a sight that was right in front of him and was motivated to replicate it for someone else. His subject matter, which was inspired by the romanticism of the moment, is regarded by art historians as a notable divergence from his contemporaries.
Even if it was unusual, perhaps he found delight in drawing what he desired. Can you make work that inspires others if you’ve never gone through a comparable situation? Does the artist’s desire to pick up his brush and capture a scene stem from the beauty of the surroundings? Or can seeing something comparable in real life make a moment depicted on canvas stir up stronger feelings?
I am aware of this since, when I write, I often use the feelings and experiences from my own life. My narrative occasionally finds its way into the fiction I write.
Sometimes I write about my trauma in its bare, unadulterated honesty. That is an instance of art mimicking life, in my opinion.
When I read anything that makes me feel something, I can claim as a reader that I can relate to the characters better because I have my own experience to draw from. The feeling of life mirroring art persists.
On the other side, the only time I can recall Thomas J. Sennett’s death in My Girl is if I see a bee or hear of someone having an allergic response (which I have never had). I’m surprised by how frequently events in real life trigger me to remember how I felt in that scenario. For me, this is a case of reality mimicking art since my feelings are connected to the artwork rather than the event.
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in Ecce Homo (written in 1888, published posthumously in 1908), which was translated from German by Anthony M. Ludovici, “Never in my life have I experienced such an autumn, nor had I ever imagined that such things were possible on earth — a Claude Lorrain extended to infinity, each day equal to the last in its wild perfection.” Anthony M. Ludovici was the translator of Nietzsche’s work. “Never in my life have I encountered an autumn as beautiful as this one,”
In the first book of In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927), written by Marcel Proust, he explored an idea that was analogous to the previous one, but this time it was in relation to specific people. Between the years 1913 and 1927, the book was written. Swann, the main character of the novel, suddenly falls in love with Odette, despite the fact that she is not his ideal lady. The reason for this is only due to the fact that Odette reminds Swann of Zipporah in Botticelli’s fresco: