ISSUE144 清凉夏日 三组习作

linfan68UID: 2185216

好难写的一篇文章……写了一个多小时……不愧为Art部分第一高频题，足见ETS阴险之处。
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: 408          TIME: 0:45:00          DATE: 2006-8-8

I agree the speaker's board assertion that artist is the creator of art and things of lasting value. However, the speaker overlooks the function of critic, which is also an important force to boost the creative works. On balance, I tend to agree that the artist, be it can not be so perfect without the effort of critic, is the essential factor of creation with lasting value.

First of all, considering the derivation of art, the artist plays a more important role than the critic. In antique ages, the meaning of art is quite close to the word Skill or Technique, and in middle ages, art is some what a kind of craftsmanship. During these two history time, art is only a special skill. Only after the Renaissance, art became a way of expressing and design, being independent from skills. Consider when art was still serving for religion uses or was a way of earning bread, how could a people living at that time evaluates the works of these early forms of art? Thus, for a long period of history, artists exist without critics, and no matter what the history preserved for us, it is the artist contribution, including the works with lasting value.

Secondly, as the critics may always find the flaws of the art, they sometimes affect the art in a sense of negative way. When a critic is evaluating a work, they certainly try to find the advantages and disadvantages of the work. Unfortunately, there is not a standard of judgment for art (even a definition of art is unavailable), which makes the evaluating controversial. What is more, when a work which is full of innovation and violates the traditional ways of thinking, it may receive all kinds of criticize from the critic, in that, the new work is inconsistent with all their standards and value systems. Consequently, the critic may not be a positive effect of innovation, which is the most critical factor of producing a work that has lasting value.

However, without the critic, art may not as close to us as it does today, for reason that the critic evaluation art in an embodied way and make the art works easily to understand and accept by the public. An apt illustration is that when we are enjoying a drawing or photo, the explanation words and evaluation from others provide us various viewpoints to enjoy the work. And sometimes only with the help of the explanation made by the critic, can we understand the profound meaning of a work and sympathize with the artist. To make the work of artist more accessible to the public, critic help the art to express their feeling and make the work become lasting value.

With various experience and inconsistent values, people may never reach at the same point on this controversial issue involving art and its values. All the evidences discuss above in some cases confirm my conclusion that it is artist who produces valuable and lasting things, but it is the critic who makes things easy to understand.