This aphorism gives plenty of food for thought indeed. So what is the relationship between art and life?

Wilde, an aesthete, is deeply convinced that life imitates art. Although this conception is the reverse of the normal notion that art imitates life, Wilde voices strongly that life is art’s best and only pupil and holds the firm belief in this concept which demonstrates art’ s uniqueness and subverts the normal one,

Without doubt, the aphorism reveals nothing but life imitating art, negating the usual situation in which artists，inspired by the world around them, create art. Needless to say, this is indeed a curious concept.

According to Wilde’s words, we can comprehend that art does not stem from reality but from the sheer imagination in which matter is unreal and nonexistent, and that his view promotes art over life; the former is far more fascinating than the latter.

Life resembles a primitive savage who mumbles a language which is vulgar, uncouth, fantastic, and even obscene; art is a flawless deity. When the savage becomes captivated by the divinity and determined to follow him, art gives life a novel beautiful couth language. Seemingly, art hardly imitates life on account of the fact that beauty has no disposition to become ugly.

In truth, the above-mentioned understanding and Wilde’s standpoint may be identical in the strict sense. But expounding this statement is not an easy task. In brief, the concept that life imitates art itself is but wrong. Nevertheless, conceived as an outline that explains some phenomena or situations in which life does imitate art, this concept can be demonstrable on the basis of the premise that the objective fact is universally acknowledged that an artist’s inspiration originates from life with the result that art is the reflection of life and can react on life.

As a matter of fact, the examples of life imitating art are commonplace.

In ancient Greece, for instance, if a man and a woman resolved to get married, they would place a statue of Hermes or Apollo in the wedding chamber whereby the bride would be likely to bear a baby that perhaps looked as cute as the carved figure and would be like him when they grew up. It seems that when people yearn to derive some satisfaction from the works of art with their hearts full of high hopes for their future life and the things occurring in the future, they make their life imitate art with the aim of beautifying and idealizing it.

Maybe the case given above is kind of abstract. Then, there is no harm in drawing more attention to these ones. It is reported that the crime investigation TV shows have influenced and changed criminal behavior. To illustrate, some criminals have been said on the shows to destroy DNA evidence with bleach. As a consequence, the use of bleach to destroy some evidence has really increased in real life.

And there is another example. The film Night at the Museum manifested us that the American Museum of Nature History in New York City attracted a large attendance and its attendance increased dramatically at the end of the film. And after the film’s release, noticeably more people, following the example of the attendance in the film, visited the real museum.

Whether it good or bad, people do have their life reproduce what has been expressed in art which, sometimes, has the references to the visible world and goes beyond the real world of appearance at other moments.

But, admittedly, life is the source of art and provides a variety of material for artists’ creative work. Accordingly, art is surely inseparable from life. And it is critical to affirm that life makes an impact on art and art affects life likewise.