issue144 清凉夏日小组3组作业

cpuliuwenUID: 2203373

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.


People nowadays have been accustomed to enjoying the great feelings that art works have brought to us. But few people have ever think about the question that who actually gave vitality to these works. I strongly agree with the assertion that " It is the artist, not the critic, who gives society something of lasting value.

To begin with, the artist is the person who create the works, either based on his/her experience or his/her imagination. As a result, the essence of these works is from the heart of the artist which might have a contagious force to people. Masterpieces always stimulate the sympathy of people or give people a pleasure spirit travel. For example, Beethoven's storming, crashing "Eroica" symphony No.3 has encouraged people to struggle with the fate, while his smooth, mellow "Moonlight" has impart to people the enjoyment of beautiful natural scene. All of his masterpieces have a monumental value because of his deep thoughts of the life, which is originated in his inspiration but not the remark of the critic.

Besides, critics are only those who can guide us to appreciate some abstruse works which can not be understood by ordinary people. Yet, the value of these works is not created by them. For example, Monet's famous work "Impression: Sunrise" can not be understood without the criticism of the critics since Monet used a large amount of blue as the major color for sunlight. Appropriate explanations are able to make the otherwise obscure works easy to comprehend. In some cases, however, the critics also mislead the public perhaps merely because they have prejudice on the artist personally. One of my favorite teachers once said(and I paraphrase), " the real value of a great work lies in the wonderful and direct visual, aural, psychological feelings it can bring to people. Never should we judge a work only by what the others tell you about it."

However, some constructive criticisms really have a positive effect on the improvement of an artist. As we all know, everyone grow up through constantly learning new things while correcting some old defects, so does an artist. Creative advices can bring some novel ideas from an artist which can stimulate even better works than ever before. Nevertheless, even in such cases, the actual source of the masterworks is still from the artists rather than critics. These critics only paly an  assistant role in the process of giving society valuable things.

In conclusion, no matter in which field of art, all the analysis above confirm my viewpoint that artists rather than critics are the creators of something of lasting value to the society.