0910AW 同主题写作第四期 ISSUE144 by didoy

DidoyUID: 2181213

谢谢大家！:loveliness:

144. “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.

It is said that artist contributes something of eternal value to the society, while critic does not contribute as much as artist does. In my opinion, both of them contribute a lot, while they play different roles: artists are the people who create something of lasting value, and critics are the people who find these things and spread the value out to common people. Thus, both of them give society significant things, and none of them could work on their own.

As common people, we usually do not have enough knowledge to evaluate art and sometimes we even cannot appreciate it in the right way. For example, when we visit the museum, we usually prefer going with someone expertise in art. And if we cannot find such person, we might borrow a guide machine to explain the artifacts and help us understand and appreciate their beauty. When we visit a museum in a foreign country, we usually have a tour guide, who can speak in our native language, to further help us appreciate the artifacts. In addition, we can see many guide boards in the museum, which introduces the artist, the place their work display, the theme of their work, the setting of their studio, and even their close friends. All the information displayed as we need something to help us understand the art work. In this case, critics play a significant role in spreading the value of the art work and bringing the art to us common people. Thus, we should not neglect the roles and contributions of the critics when we talk about art piece.

Furthermore, not only us common people need critics, but the artists need them as well. Creating an art work is more individual than we usually thought, which means that without critics, the artists might lack a social setting to display their work and raise their valuation. The existence of critics ensures a social setting for artists to communicate with the general and acknowledge the taste of the general. Although sometimes critics bring unnecessary pressure to the artist and sometimes they change the trend through their criticisms which harm some talented artists, their existence should not be undervalued.

As every coin has two sides, however, critics might also bring some bad affects on the common people and the artists. For example, when critics focus more on some certain types of art works, these artists and their art works will appear more frequently on media where common people get information about art world. Thus, as unintended results, they might misguide people to appreciate only these types of art works and make these style the main trends of the society. Then, the artists who originally do not create these types of works might have to follow the trend in order to gain applaud and earn livings. In this case, the existence of critics might limit people’s appreciation of a wide range of art works and might sink alternative artists and their work into oblivion.

Above all, I hold the idea that both artists and critics contribute something of eternal value to the society by playing diverse roles in the process. Although the existence of critics might lead to some unintended results, their contributions should not be ignored.