【Big Fish】3月7日Issue131-By Narashy

NarashyUID: 2602795

TOPIC: ISSUE131 - "The arts (painting, music, literature, etc.) reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society."
WORDS: 451          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2010-3-7 10:49:25

As the treasure of human civilization, art has always been placed a high value on. When it comes to the question that whether the art could reveal the hidden ideas and impulses of a society, from my point of view, art sometimes do illustrate the hidden values of a society while sometimes they do not.
First of all, as the production of certain era under certain circumstances, art usually is endowed by the author with the characteristics of certain society.

When we are studying history, art is one of the most important views, as science, technology, politics, military, from which we can get a full perspect of the values, customs and ideals of the society. For example, the immortal literature <<Notre Dame Cathedral>> reflects the corrupt society in France about the 400 years ago as well as the kindness valued by people. Similarly, the famous <<Jane Eyre>> composed by C. Bront reveals the society that encourage women to seek their own love in spite of their social status or appearance. Both book reveal the value and idea of their author as well as the society they live.

What's more, art is one of the paramount impetus of social development. As we review history, we can see how profoundly art has affected the society. A remarkable example would be Florence. As the origin of Renaissance, gathering the greatest artists like Vinci, Michelangelo and Dante, Florence soon became the center of Europe and even the world center of art. Nowadays we can still identify the influence that art has left on this city from various museums, churches and sculptures.

However, although ususllay art is an acurate indicator of the social ideas, it is not always the case. No general rules on art have ever been prescribed that every artist has to obey and artists reserve their own rights to show the understanding of the world from their own perspective as well as their
idiosyncracy. Actually, it is the diversity in the understanding of art that leads to the prosperity of art. Many artists' distinct lives are best implied by their famous work, such as Beethoven's insistance and strong, Von Gogh's desire and depression. Obviously their works reflect their own values and attitudes rather than the society.

To sum up, as one of the most important factors in culture, art can often be precise sign of the social value and impulses. It is derived from the society and in turn deeply affected the society. However, this is not always the case. Sometime art is just the reflection of the artists own feeling which is possibly not accepted by the majority. To say arts always reveal the hidden ideas and impulses is an unfair generalization.