Issue144【加州阳光】第6次作业 sandy请猛拍

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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: 5222          TIME: 1:15:00          DATE: 2006-7-4

Novels, opera, music and paintings all embody inexpressible social value. People are often attracted by their beauty; accordingly think that the artist gives society something of lasting value.  However, based on the personal experience and actual observations of society, I contend that no only the artists but the critic contribute to the eternal value of the society.

To begin with, the artists, who produce the works of the art, indeed show the lasting values of society. The works of the art embody the inner feelings about the nature beauty.  In a sense, the works can represent the beautiful civilization of human society which are not experienced or become aware before. For instance, the great painting, Mona Lisa, shows the perfect enjoying of people. In addition, many other styles of art works annotate the same topic, such as the opera of the Shakespeare and the novels of the Goethe.

Social values of the works not only embody perfection of nature but represent the substance of society.    Arts are also the mirror of the current social condition. Though the research of the contemporary arts, people can learn about the social relationship and conflict and so on at that time. Generally speaking,   the novels, written by Mark Twain, expose many stigmatic phenomena of the society giving lots of revelations for people.  Hence, the everlasting value, the arts are created by the artists.

We should not neglect the functions of the critic in the lasting values of society. Critic plays a considerable part in helping people understand the arts， learn about the skill artist used and appreciate the whether the classics or the daub. Without the critic, although men will have some ideas or comprehension of the arts, they always can not point out the essence of the arts, no to mention why the skills in the arts can exert the most power causing the more attractive of the works. In order to gasp the essence of the novels, the comments usually show on the preface of the novels; to know about the skill of the paintings, the critique appears next to the pictures.  It is because the critic advances the value of the arts and becomes the lasting value of the society in the end.

Admittedly, critic may not have the positive effect or even have the negative ones.  With the continual innovation skill of works, the problem, arouse. When the traditional methods conflict with the innovating ones, the critics usually are on the side of the traditional ones.  They object the innovated arts’ skills, forbid their publication and even sentence the artists who create such arts to death.  They sometimes baffle the development of the arts and reduce the number of the works which may have the everlasting values.  Weighed carefully, the contribution of the critic is more than the negative effect.

To sum up, without the artists, the arts of the lasting value of the arts can not be produced. Without the critics,   the arts of the lasting value can not be known in the world.  Thus, the lasting value of the society contribute both to the function for artists and critics.