[Ads-l] Quote: When bankers get together for dinner they discuss Art. When artists get together for dinner, they discuss Money

[Jonathan Lighter]

> When bankers get together for dinner they discuss Art.

What planet is this guy on?

JL

On Sat, Jun 11, 2016 at 5:03 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> I was sent a tweet inquiry from @npr_rad (NPR RAD Research, Archives,
> & Data Strategy)
>
> [Begin tweet text]
> @QuoteResearch When bankers get together for dinner they discuss Art.
> When artists get together for dinner, they discuss Money #oscarwilde ?
> [End tweet text]
>
> Here is my quick preliminary analysis. Your help is desired.
>
> I searched "The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde" edited by Ralph Keyes,
> and the saying was absent. Also, it was not listed on the Wikiquote
> webpages (public-facing/discussion) for Oscar Wilde. Barry Popik's
> website did not list it. It was not in the YBQ.
>
> The prominent composer Jean Sibelius said something pertinent that was
> reported in a 1937 biography:
>
> [ref] 1938, Sibelius: A Close-up by Bengt de Törne, Quote Page 94,
> Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Massachusetts. (Faber and Faber, London
> edition released earlier in 1937) (Verified with scans in 1938
> edition)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Sibelius considers artists, their eccentricities and pettinesses, with
> a humorous understanding. One day he said: 'It is so difficult to mix
> with artists! You must choose business men to talk to, because artists
> only talk of money.'
> [End excerpt]
>
> Sibelius was born in 1865. So he was eighty in 1945. The instance
> below is also ascribed to Sibelius, and it is closer to the modern
> saying:
>
> [ref] 1950 February 5, The Pittsburgh Press, Music: Sibelius' Comment,
> Quote Page 63, Column 6, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
> (Newspapers_com)[/ref]
>
> [Begin except]
> Sibelius is reported to have said on his 80th birthday: "If you want
> to discuss art you must talk to men of business. Artists only discuss
> money.
> [End excerpt]
>
> By 1980 a version of the saying had been assigned to Oscar Wilde:
>
> [ref] 1980 November 2, The Courier-Journal, The Business of Art by Pam
> Luecke (Courier-Journal Business Writer), Quote Page E1, Column 1,
> Louisville, Kentucky. (Newspapers_com)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> But Jan Arnow prefers another quote — attributed to Oscar Wilde — that
> takes the artist down from his purist pedestal.
>
> "When bankers dine together they discuss art," it says. "When artists
> dine together they discuss money."
> [End excerpt]
>
> I explored a thematically related saying contrasting the commercial
> and artistic impulses that was ascribed to George Bernard Shaw in
> 1921.
>
> You Are Only Interested in Art and I Am Only Interested in Money
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/30/art-money/
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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