"It is the artist, not the critic, who gives society something of lasting value."

3. "It is the artist, not the critic, who gives society something of lasting value."

In the age of the internet and television media, the memory of the masses is shortlived. Fame is fast, yet fleeting while the next great thing comes along and catches the fancy. Creating something of lasting value takes more than just being a critic.

Siskel and Ebert is synonymous to movie reviews. Simon Cowell, the hard to please and hypercritical judge from American Idol is probably more famous than a Jackson Pollock today. One may even successfully argue that to critique something requires indepth knowledge to begin with. What is hard to elicit however, is that lasting value is created by critics.

Art lasts well after the artist is gone. The popularity of the art waxes and wanes with the tastes of the times. Whereas the critique's appeal lasts only as long as the appeal to the masses remains. Shakespearean critics may come and go over the centuries, but there is only truly one Shakespeare. Further opinions and critiques of art works resonate with the masses to create value only because they appeal to them at the time. But impressions of art change with time. Leonardo, Shakespeare and Picasso were much ahead of their times and while the opinion of critiques' would have been morphed with the appeal of the masses, the works of these greats still remain and add value to our lives.

Then there is the issue of substance. Critics evaluate artistic works. Even if a critique is considered art, it is at best a derivative art. A derivative art by definition requires the primary art to exist in the first place. A critique of a poor piece of art does not by itself add value for example.

Lasting value by definition requires it to last. Critiques may add value but the value they add just may not stand the test of time. Their work is a derivative work and it depends on the underlying art to succeed. Art on the other hand transcends time and as is often the case, continues to add value long after the artist is gone.