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218."In order for any work of art— whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song—to have merit, it must be understandable to most people."
1.理解的定义不明确
a. 理解的层次不同,不必理解其理论才算是理解
b.个人的审美能力受教育等因素制约,个人的审美角度亦不同。指出原题矛盾
2.Merit的本质
a.本质非populace,艺术形式有其盛衰规律
b.本质是艺术价值,创新性
The speaker believes any work of art having merits is required to be understandable. However, I could not accept the speaker’s assertion for it rests on two basic concepts both of which are too vague: the definition of “understandable art” and the methods, or criteria, employed to judge an art work that has merits.
Close scrutiny to the definition of a concept lead to an assortment by certain criteria. For example, we define a natural phenomenon, lightening for instance, as “understandable” because the physics theory behind it is known by us, which is, an abrupt electric discharge in the atmosphere. However, when it comes to art, as well as the concept on understandable art, things can not be that easy. As least, an understandable work of art does not call for a clear understanding of the principles, techniques and theories behind it and if though, the admirable masterpiece composed by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, or Mozart have to be not “understandable”, since few people except specialists know the theories of music composition.
However, if “understandable” merely means looking-good (or sounding-good), a subjective concept mainly decided by one’s aesthetic taste, then the diversity of tastes among different people makes it impossible to evaluate a work of art, thus leaving the speaker’s assertion ungrounded. And that is what happens in reality. Education, for example, plays an active role in forming one’s ability to appreciate an art work and his/her aesthetic taste. Considering a country in poverty where an art museum is an unheard word, most high-valued paintings are, indubitably, not understandable. From the speaker’s points of view in claiming that they are of little merit, the discrepancy is quite obvious.
Even if an acceptable level of similar aesthetic tastes among common people is granted, I could not fully agree the statement because of the nature of any form of art. The ethos of a society, as well as the notions of people, changes over time, sometimes rapidly. New forms of art emerge, develop, prosper at the expenses of that some of the others elapse. Two of the most significant factors that influence the society, one is economy and the other is culture, which embodies any forms of art. When rock music first emerges in 1960s, no one notices it or admires it. At first, rock stars are considered as avant-garde or iconoclast, in other words, they are not understandable by most people. While in the 1970s, the rock music swept the pop music world and began to be accepted and even loved by millions of fans. A previously unmerited form of art began to be understandable.
Actually, the essence of a work of art that has merits is not dependent on it populace, on how much people understand it, it replies on, however, the aesthetic value within, which adds to the wisdom of the whole mankind. For example, Edouard Manet, the French painter who in his own work accomplished the transition from the realism to Impressionism, aroused the hostility of the critics immediately when he first exhibited his exceptional "Luncheon on the Grass". For those critics, neither his choosing subject nor his new definition of painting is understandable. However, it was Manet and the young painters followed him that fashioned a new beginning of the art world. It seems that, contrary to what the speaker suggest, new inventions or innovations, especially those have not been understood and recognized, are likely to be most striking power to change the world, in other words, having merits.
In sum, the merits brought by any work of art is not based on to what extent it is understood, but the aesthetic value and the creative notions it contains. Notable works of art are sometime ignored for some time, even a long period, for each individual has his or her own aesthetic taste and most of them are not always ready to welcome a piece of merited, but unaccustomed idea. |
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