【Flyer杀G】小组-7.16 Issue144, by Sean

柏拉图的世界UID: 2581296

TOPIC: ISSUE144 - "It is the artist, not the critic,* who gives society something of lasting value."

*a person who evaluates works of art, such as novels, films, music, paintings, etc.
WORDS: 456
TIME: 00:44:09
DATE: 2010-7-16 15:43:55

Arts are kind of interaction between the creators and the observers. Without the works themselves, there won't be value at all; if no one comes to observe and reveal the value, value of these works will lose its way to immortality. At this point, both artists and critics together gives the society lasting value.

As the host of artistic creation, artists' effect on the value can never be overestimated. They are sensitive visionaries in our society, and by their minds, senses hidden in the society are dredged up, and by their hands, these symbols are presented and recorded vividly. Looking at the stone figures made by artists in ancient Greek, one would find they are usually naked. By divesting dresses, social status is prevented from disturbing our judgment on persons. Consequently, what are emphasized is the very natural shapes of human bodies, and the equality of human, regardless of ascription. In this way, lasting value that ever was passed down till today is the respect to equality, human rights and democracy as well as the inquisition about nature of human beings.

However, bearing mind that most of the art work keep reticent or at least never automatically tell us what the value of them is, we need critics to inspect and to reveal them. Through studies on historical context of ancient works, critics help us interpret that The Divine Comedy not only narrated Dante’s fantastic journey through hell, purgatory and paradise, but also foreshowed the era of capital revolution. And the role of critics appears more critical when it comes to modern art works, which are usually idiosyncratic expression of artists themselves. For instance, Van Gogh hardly sold any piece of work when he was alive, because ordinary people failed to understand his transcendental artistic perception and his enthusiasm concealed in his weird paintbrushes and colors. It was the critics who debated on his styles, later leading us outsiders began to appreciate aesthetic values as well as humanity in his works. After all, if the art works are not to be understood, their value certainly fails to be lightened.

More than that, during the present time when various art works find their way to our sight, critics play a bigger role to help us discriminate them and guide the values of the society to some extent. Arts become more and more popular, and easy for every individual to communicate their ideas, which might be a good event on the one hand, since it makes arts richer. Yet on the other hand, inappropriate and valueless factors are blent into them. As a number of art works involve excessive materialism, violence, selfishness, to name a few. They act on the populace, especially the kids. It calls the critics come to discriminate value of those works, guide our personal consideration on them. Through this can those arts with true values stand out and live long.

To some up, the impact of arts on our society are influenced by both artists and critics. The former create them and the latter translate them to populace. Thus, genuinely lasting value comes into its own.