"Fashion is a potency in art, making it hard to judge between the temporary and the lasting"
About this Quote
Fashion exerts real power over art, not as mere decoration but as a force that can alter what artists make and how audiences and critics see. Stedman, a 19th-century American poet, critic, and anthologist who watched reputations rise and fall across the Atlantic, understood how swiftly a vogue can crown or bury a work. In the Victorian era of salons, academies, and mass-circulation journals, taste moved in waves: the Pre-Raphaelites shocked then charmed, Aestheticism flirted with scandal and style, Browning was scorned then revered. Such churn makes immediate judgment precarious. When fashion confers a halo, it becomes hard to tell whether we are admiring a genuine artistic advance or the glamour of the moment.
Yet the potency cuts both ways. Fashion is often the incubator of innovation. Artists work within the pressures and possibilities of their time; new techniques, subjects, and sensibilities often arrive wearing the garments of a trend. Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Symbolism, modernist free verse—all were once derided as fads before gaining permanence. Conversely, much that seems daring proves hollow once the novelty fades. Stedman’s point is not to dismiss fashion but to recognize its capacity to distort and to catalyze, to lift attention while masking the underlying quality.
The dilemma pushes criticism toward humility and patience. Criteria like craft, depth of feeling, structural integrity, and the capacity to speak across contexts can help, but even those standards are themselves historically inflected. Time remains the sternest editor, sifting what endures from what merely dazzles. Still, waiting for posterity is not an option for working critics, patrons, or readers. The best posture is a double vision: remaining alert to the genuine energies that a movement releases while withholding the final laurel. In an age of viral aesthetics and algorithmic taste, Stedman’s insight retains its sting. Art that lasts often arrives tied to its hour, but it keeps breathing when the hour passes.
Yet the potency cuts both ways. Fashion is often the incubator of innovation. Artists work within the pressures and possibilities of their time; new techniques, subjects, and sensibilities often arrive wearing the garments of a trend. Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Symbolism, modernist free verse—all were once derided as fads before gaining permanence. Conversely, much that seems daring proves hollow once the novelty fades. Stedman’s point is not to dismiss fashion but to recognize its capacity to distort and to catalyze, to lift attention while masking the underlying quality.
The dilemma pushes criticism toward humility and patience. Criteria like craft, depth of feeling, structural integrity, and the capacity to speak across contexts can help, but even those standards are themselves historically inflected. Time remains the sternest editor, sifting what endures from what merely dazzles. Still, waiting for posterity is not an option for working critics, patrons, or readers. The best posture is a double vision: remaining alert to the genuine energies that a movement releases while withholding the final laurel. In an age of viral aesthetics and algorithmic taste, Stedman’s insight retains its sting. Art that lasts often arrives tied to its hour, but it keeps breathing when the hour passes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|
More Quotes by Edmund
Add to List
