issue 144处女作,请指教~

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"It's the artist, notthe critic, who gives society something of lasting value."


Undoubtedly, artists, who directlyproduce art works, give society something of lasting value. But withoutcritics, art can never be so prosperous and widely enjoyed. Critics express theartists' obscure ideas to the laypersons that art is not limited in a smallcircle; They select the best ones out of seas of art works produced every yearto avoid time wasted on the bad ones; They set up and apply a range ofcriterions to evaluate art works to eliminate absolute subjectivism so that artcan develop healthily. It may be controversial but quite probable that critics,but not artists lead the fashion of art tastes.

It is unfortunate that from the ancienttime to modern era, the critic is frequently misunderstood and underestimatedall across the world. The quote above is just a radical expression of themisunderstanding of the critic. The misunderstanding emerges and developsbecause of several reasons.

Firstly, art critics seem lack ofcreativity and talent. But in fact, many of the greatest critics themselves aredistinguished artists, with rich knowledge, sincere passion and discerningvision on art. And good criticism is a kind of re-creation full of wisdom andinsight. For a layperson, the appreciation of art works is in fact a mixture ofthe work itself and the insightful comments by the critic.

Secondly, the public usually believe thatart talents like Beethoven and van Gogh were concealed by the critic,disregarding that it is critics who bring them to the world after all. Imaginethere are no art critics at all, how could the public understand and appreciatevan Gogh's paintings. Though it is common that critics fail to discover thetalents immediately because of the confines of the established criterions, theyare always the first to realize the value of the artists.

Thirdly, since every one can criticize,the public think it easy to be a critic. I agree with the assertion, and Ibelieve that most criticism, just like most art works, is unvalued. However, Imust point out that being a good critic is extremely difficult, which requiresnot only talent in art but also a broad view to connect art with its socialbackground.

In sum, I suppose the function of criticsis obvious and significant, that they contribute a lot to convey the ideas ofart to the public and conduct the development of art. The speaker's word showsthe universal prejudice against critics, which resulted from the specialcharacter of their work. The prejudice unfortunately masks the positive effectsof the critic and exaggerates their negative effect on art.