Christa Giles

L’art c’est le vice. On ne l’épouse pas, on le
viole. Qui dit art, dit artifice. L’art est
malhonnête et cruel. 553
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For death and disease are inextricably bound up with the
world of the artificial. Decay takes place behind the
powdered mask, and Des Esseintes’ turtle dies encrusted
with the very jewels that transform him into artifact; and
therein lies the inescapable dichotomy of life and art which
leads to an ironic ˝cruel˝ perception. In one sense, then, art
was also cruel because its function was to shock, titillate,
and provoke by means of this juxtaposition. Therefore,
while the public may cry ˝C’est obscène!˝ 554 before Degas’
work, Huysmans believed such art was supremely chaste.
Neither Wilde nor Huysmans saw any automatic link
between the pornographic and the ˝immoral,˝ and
vulgarity and ugliness. Nor did they think that ˝crime and
culture˝ were mutually exclusive. 555 Indeed, extremes allow
for intensity, and Wilde concluded, ˝One can fancy an
intense personality being created out of sin.˝ 556 Moreover:
L’art comme l’homme est tour à tour
vertueux ou vicieux, c’est à dire religieux ou
pervers . . . ce qui n’est ni blanc, ni noir, ni
pure, ni impur est gris ou bourgeois. 557