Issue高频——艺术是否应被大众理解~求拍啊！

greenfish7

In order for any work of art—for example, a film, a novel, a poem, or a song—to have merit, it must be understandable to most people.


Time: 42min
Words: 533


Artwork, which most frequently receives controversy from disparate directions, generally refers to the works in fields of film, novel, poem, or song. A provocative question about it never ceases haunting in public: must artwork be understandable to most people to gain its merit? Undeniably, it serves as a requisite for an artwork to be accepted by public as it is comprehensible. Nevertheless, it is in fact unrealistic to claim that artworks, always with profound meanings under their surfaces, should be understood by most of the people considering different experiences and levels of different people, not to mention that the merit of an artwork is actually a definition that eludes absoluteness, even for the “small part of the people”.


It’s true that to have merit, it is indispensable for an artwork to be comprehensible, no matter in the contemporary, or in later background, because this serves as a prerequisite for people to discover its merit. The works of Vincent Van Gogh, for instance, one of the most influential impressionistic painters in the world, surpassed the understanding of his contemporaries, which resulted in people’s disapproval, especially from the critics, and eventually his commitment of suicide. Because the emotions and meanings behind his works such as Sunflower, Starry Night, were too obscure for critics in that period to know, they tended to criticize or just ignore his works. However, through the test of time, people now have deeper understanding of that era and meanwhile get more approaches to understanding his works, Van Gogh now, has been accepted as one of the greatest painters of the world.


Nevertheless, it is somehow unrealistic to require every masterpiece to be understood by most people, taking into account different life experiences, varied levels of art appreciation, as well as disparate interests in art. Hamlet, as an example, which is nearly the most famous revenge story in the history, receives 1000 kinds of views from 1000 readers. Mona Lisa, the masterpiece of Leonardo De Vinci, also has its multifaceted opinions from different people. One may say the woman in this painting does smile for feeling of happiness; or another may say she is upset under pressure of life. In fact, even if it is not because different people have different experiences or levels of appreciation that artworks are hard to have a uniform meaning, the artwork itself is a complex mystery in nature, making it refractory of unison.


In addition, what is really a “merit” of a work of art is hard to define. Is it a reaction in readers’ mind that influences their behaviors? Or is it a function of prompting the development of the whole art? Or is it merely a most genuine reflection of an era or the artist? No one could pinpoint a definition that provokes no schism.


On balance, it is indeed crucial for an artwork to be understood by people, at least a small part of people, namely critics or artists, and thus the work can be discovered, but when it comes to the knowledge of most people, the position is different. Due to varied situations of people, it is not realistic to require artwork to be understood by most people, and in fact the real meaning of merit is hard to define.

普渡哥

写得很好！可以考虑一下艺术的多样化，有平民艺术，有抽象艺术。限制艺术形态会限制想象力。

greenfish7

谢谢普渡哥！