excluded from art

The building must please everybody. In contrast to the work of art, which does not have to please anybody. The work of art is a private affair of the artist. The building is not. The work of art is brought into the world without there being a need for it. The building supplies a need. The work of art is responsible to no one, the house to each person. The work of art wants to tear people from their comfort zone. The building must serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary, the building is conservative. The work of art opens new avenues to mankind and thinks of the future. The building thinks of the present. Mankind loves everything that serves his comfort. He hates everything that wants to tear him from his habitual and safe position and that bothers him. And thus he loves the building and hates art. Thus does it not then follow that the house has nothing to do with art and that architecture would not be counted among the arts? Thus it is. Only a small part of architecture belongs to art: the gravestone and the monument. Everything else that serves a purpose can be excluded from the kingdom of art.

Architektur, Adolf Loos