Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
.
Art critics usually criticize art in the context of
aestheticsAesthetics is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
or the theory of beauty. One of criticism's goals is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation.
The variety of
artistic movementsAn art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within usually a number of years.-The concept:...
has resulted in a division of art criticism into different disciplines, each using vastly different criteria for their judgements. The most common division in the field of criticism is between historical criticism and evaluation, a form of art history, and contemporary criticism of work by living artists.
Despite perceptions that art criticism is a much lower risk activity than making art, opinions of current art are always liable to drastic corrections with the passage of time. Critics of the past are often ridiculed for either favoring artists now derided (like the
academic paintersAcademic art is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies or universities.Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des beaux-arts, which practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and...
of the late 19th Century) or dismissing artists now venerated (like the early work of the Impressionists). Some art movements themselves were named disparagingly by critics, with the name later adopted as a sort of badge of honor by the artists of the style (e.g.
ImpressionismImpressionism was a 19th-century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence in the 1870s and 1880s...
,
CubismCubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. The first branch of cubism, known as "Analytic Cubism", was both radical and influential as...
), the original negative meaning forgotten.
Some critics are unable to adapt to new movements in art and allow their opinions to override their objectivity, resulting in inappropriately dated critique.
John RuskinJohn Ruskin was an English art critic and social thinker, also remembered as an author, poet and artist. His essays on art and architecture were extremely influential in the Victorian and Edwardian eras....
famously compared one of
James McNeill WhistlerJames Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
's paintings,
Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, to "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face".
Artists have often had an uneasy relationship with their critics. Artists usually need positive opinions from critics for their work to be viewed and purchased; unfortunately for the artists, only later generations may understand it.
Origins
Although critiques of art may have its origins in the origins of art itself, art criticism as a genre is credited to have acquired its modern form by the 18th century.
The first writer to acquire an individual reputation as an art critic in 18th C. France was La Font de Saint-Yenne who wrote about the Salon of 1737 and wrote primarily to entertain while including anti-monarchist rhetoric in his prose.
The 18th C. French writer
Denis DiderotDenis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....
is usually credited with the invention of the modern medium of art criticism. Diderot's "The Salon of 1765" was one of the first real attempts to capture art in words. According to art historian
Thomas E. CrowThomas E. Crow is an American art historian and art critic who is best known for his influential writing on the role of art in modern society and culture....
, "When Diderot took up art criticism it was on the heels of the first generation of professional writers who made it their business to offer descriptions and judgments of contemporary painting and sculpture. The demand for such commentary was a product of the similarly novel institution of regular, free, public exhibitions of the latest art." [Published in
Diderot on Art I, p.x]
A dominating figure in 19th century art criticism was French poet
Charles BaudelaireCharles Pierre Baudelaire was a nineteenth century French poet, critic, and translator. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Baudelaire's name has become a byword for literary and artistic decadence...
, whose first published work was his art review
Salon of 1845, which attracted immediate attention for its boldness. Many of his critical opinions were novel in their time, including his championing of
DelacroixDelacroix derives from de la Croix . It may refer to:In people:* Charles-François Delacroix, French ambassador to the Netherlands* Eugène Delacroix, a French Romantic artist...
and
CourbetCourbet may refer to*Gustave Courbet, French painter*Amédée Courbet, French admiral*French battleship Courbet *French battleship Courbet *Courbet , French frigate...
. When
ManetManet is Édouard Manet, a 19th-century French painter.MANET is a mobile ad hoc network, a self-configuring mobile wireless network.Manet or MANET may also refer to:*MANET database or Molecular Ancestry Network, bioinformatics database...
's famous
OlympiaOlympia is an oil on canvas painting by Édouard Manet in the Realism style. Painted in 1863, it measures 130.5 by 190 centimetres . The nation of France acquired the painting in 1890 with a public subscription organized by Claude Monet...
(1865), a portrait of a nude courtesan, provoked a scandal for its blatant realism, Baudelaire worked privately to support his friend.
Pre-World War II
Bloomsbury GroupThe Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half of the...
members
Roger FryRoger Eliot Fry was an English artist and an art critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury group. Despite establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, as he matured as a critic he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name...
and
Clive BellArthur Clive Heward Bell was an English Art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury Group.- Origins :Clive Bell was born in East Shefford, Berkshire, in 1881...
were notable English pre-war art critics. Fry introduced
post-impressionismPost-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet...
to the country, and Bell was one of the founders of the
formalistIn art theory, formalism is the concept that a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form--the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content...
approach to art.
Herbert ReadSir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner.-Early life:He was born in Kirkbymoorside in North...
championed modern British artists such as
Paul NashPaul Nash is the name of:* Paul Nash , British artist* Paul Nash , South African sprinter* Paul Nash , Jamaican Sportsperson of the Year 1969, Father of Brendan Nash...
,
Ben NicholsonBenjamin Lauder Nicholson OM, , known as Ben Nicholson, was an English abstract painter.-Background and Training:...
,
Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
and
Barbara HepworthDame Barbara Hepworth DBE was a major British sculptor and artist of the twentieth century...
.
In the U.S,
Clement GreenbergClement Greenberg was an influential American art critic closely associated with Modern art in the United States...
first made his name as an art critic with his essay
Avant-Garde and KitschAvant-Garde and Kitsch is the title of a 1939 essay by Clement Greenberg, first published in the Partisan Review, in which he claimed that avant-garde and modernist art was a means to resist the 'dumbing down' of culture caused by consumerism...
, first published in the journal
Partisan ReviewPartisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:It was founded by William Phillips, Philip Rahv, and Sender Garlin...
in 1939.
Post-World War II
As in the case of Baudelaire in the 19th century, the poet-as-critic phenomenon appears once again in the 20th, when French poet Apollinaire becomes the champion of cubism. Later, French writer and hero of the Resistance
André MalrauxAndré Malraux DSO was a French author, adventurer and statesman.-Biography:Malraux was born in Paris during 1901, the son of Fernand-Georges Malraux , and Berthe Lamy . His parents separated during 1905 and eventually divorced. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother, Berthe and...
writes extensively on art, going well beyond the limits of his native Europe. Interestingly, his conviction that the vanguard in Latin America lay in
Mexican MuralismMexican muralism is a Mexican art movement that took place primarily in the 1930s. The movement stands out historically because of its political undertones, the majority of which of a Marxist nature, or related to a social and political situation of post-revolutionary Mexico.- About the movement...
(
OrozcoJosé Clemente Orozco was a Mexican social realist painter, who specialized in bold murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others...
,
RiveraDiego Rivera was born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez in Guanajuato, Gto. He was a world-famous Mexican painter, an active Communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo, 1929–1939 and 1940–1954...
and Siqueiros) changes after his trip to
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
in 1958. After visiting the studios of several Argentine artists in the company of the young Director of the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires
Rafael SquirruRafael Squirru , is an Argentine poet, lecturer, art critic and essayist.- Biographical notes :Educated in Buenos Aires at Saint Andrew's Scot School and at the secondary school El Salvador of the Society of Jesus, he graduated in Law at the University of Edinburgh in 1948.After founding the...
, Malraux declares the new vanguard to lie in
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
's new artistic movements. Worthy of note is the fact that Squirru, a poet-critic of renown himself who became Cultural Director of the
OASThe Organization of American States is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. Its members are the thirty-five independent states of the Americas with two countries suspended...
in Washington D.C. during the Sixties, was the last to interview the well-nigh forgotten
Edward HopperEdward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
before his death, creating a revival which consecrated the American artist once and for all time.
In the 1940s there were not only few galleries (The Art of This Century) but also few critics who were willing to follow the work of the New York Vanguard.
There were also a few artists with a literary background, among them Robert Motherwell and Barnett Newman who functioned as critics as well.
As surprising as it may be, while New York and the world were unfamiliar with the New York
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
, by the late 1940s most of the artists who have become household names today had their well established patron critics:
Clement GreenbergClement Greenberg was an influential American art critic closely associated with Modern art in the United States...
advocated
Jackson PollockPaul Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism all of...
and the
Color fieldColor Field painting is a style of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. It was inspired by European modernism and closely related to Abstract Expressionism, while many of its notable early proponents were among the pioneering Abstract Expressionists...
painters like
Clyfford StillClyfford Still was an American painter, and one of the leading figures of Abstract Expressionism.-Biography:...
,
Mark RothkoMark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Latvian-born American painter and printmaker. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted the classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk...
,
Barnett NewmanBarnett Newman was an American artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters.-Youth:...
,
Adolph GottliebAdolph Gottlieb was an American abstract expressionist painter, sculptor and graphic artist.-Biography:Gottlieb was born in New York to Jewish parents. From 1920-1921 he studied at the Art Students League of New York, after which he traveled in France and Germany for a year...
and
Hans HofmannHans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter. He was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria on March 21, 1880 the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann...
.
Harold RosenbergHarold Rosenberg was an American writer, educator, philosopher and art critic. He coined the term Action Painting in 1952 for what was later to be known as abstract expressionism. The term was first employed in Rosenberg's essay "American Action Painters" published in the December 1952 issue of...
seemed to prefer the action painters like
Willem de KooningWillem de Kooning was an abstract expressionist artist, born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.In the post-World War II era, de Kooning painted in a style that came to be referred to variously as Abstract expressionism, Action painting, and the New York School...
and
Franz KlineFranz Kline was an American painter mainly associated with the Abstract Expressionist painters who were centered, geographically, around New York, and temporally, in the 1940s and 1950s; but not limited to that setting...
. Thomas B. Hess, the managing editor of Art News, championed
Willem de KooningWillem de Kooning was an abstract expressionist artist, born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.In the post-World War II era, de Kooning painted in a style that came to be referred to variously as Abstract expressionism, Action painting, and the New York School...
.
The new critics elevated their proteges by casting other artists as "followers" or ignoring those who did not serve their promotional goal.
As an example, in 1958,
Mark TobeyMark George Tobey was an American abstract expressionist painter, born in Centerville, Wisconsin. Widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe, Tobey is the most noted among the "mystical painters of the Northwest." Senior in age and experience, Tobey had a strong influence on the...
"became the first American painter since Whistler (1895) to win top prize at the Biennale of Venice. New York's two leading art magazines were not interested. Arts mentioned the historic event only in a news column and Art News (Managing editor: Thomas B. Hess) ignored it completely. The New York Times and Life printed feature articles."
Barnett NewmanBarnett Newman was an American artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters.-Youth:...
, a late member of the
Uptown GroupThe Art of This Century Gallery was opened by Peggy Guggenheim at 30 W. 57th Street in New York City in October-November 1942. The gallery exhibited important contemporary art until it closed in 1947, when Guggenheim returned to Europe...
wrote catalogue forewords and reviews and by the late 1940s became an exhibiting artist at Betty Parsons Gallery. His first solo show was in 1948. Soon after his first exhibition, Barnett Newman remarked in one of the Artists' Session at Studio 35: "We are in the process of making the world, to a certain extent, in our own image." Utilizing his writing skills, Newman fought every step of the way to reinforce his newly established image as an artist and to promote his work. An example is his letter in April 9, 1955, "Letter to Sidney Janis: ---It is true that Rothko talks the fighter. He fights, however, to submit to the philistine world. My struggle against bourgeois society has involved the total rejection of it."
Strangely the person thought to have had most to do with the promotion of this style was a New York Trotskyist,
Clement GreenbergClement Greenberg was an influential American art critic closely associated with Modern art in the United States...
. As long time art critic for the
Partisan ReviewPartisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:It was founded by William Phillips, Philip Rahv, and Sender Garlin...
and
The NationThe Nation is a weekly United States periodical devoted to politics and culture, self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865 at the start of Reconstruction as a supporter of the victorious North in the American Civil War, it is the oldest continuously published weekly...
, he became an early and literate proponent of abstract expressionism. Artist
Robert MotherwellRobert Motherwell was an American abstract expressionist painter and printmaker. He was one of the youngest of the New York School , which also included Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Philip Guston.Motherwell was born in Aberdeen, Washington...
, well heeled, joined Greenberg in promoting a style that fit the political climate and the intellectual rebelliousness of the era.
Clement GreenbergClement Greenberg was an influential American art critic closely associated with Modern art in the United States...
proclaimed
Abstract ExpressionismAbstract expressionism was an American post-World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris....
and
Jackson PollockPaul Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism all of...
in particular as the epitome of aesthetic value. It supported Pollock's work on formalistic grounds as simply the best painting of its day and the culmination of an art tradition going back via
CubismCubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. The first branch of cubism, known as "Analytic Cubism", was both radical and influential as...
and Cézanne to Monet, in which painting became ever 'purer' and more concentrated in what was 'essential' to it, the making of marks on a flat surface.
Jackson PollockPaul Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism all of...
's work has always polarised critics.
Harold RosenbergHarold Rosenberg was an American writer, educator, philosopher and art critic. He coined the term Action Painting in 1952 for what was later to be known as abstract expressionism. The term was first employed in Rosenberg's essay "American Action Painters" published in the December 1952 issue of...
spoke of the transformation of painting into an existential drama in Pollock's work, in which "what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event". "The big moment came when it was decided to paint 'just to paint'. The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation from value--political, aesthetic, moral."
One of the most vocal critics of Abstract expressionism at the time was New York Times
art criticAn art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
John CanadayJohn Edwin Canaday was an Art Critic, Author and Art Historian.-Biography:...
.
Meyer ShapiroMeyer Shapiro may refer to:*Meir Shapiro, dean of Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, and founder of the Daf Yomi Talmud folio cycle*Meyer Shapiro, one of the Shapiro Brothers, New York City labor racketeer*Meyer Schapiro, art historian...
, and
Leo SteinbergLeo Steinberg is an American art critic and art historian and a naturalized citizen of the U.S. He is the son of Isaac Nachman Steinberg.Steinberg has won literary awards as well as awards for his criticism...
were also important art historians of the post-war era who voiced support for Abstract expressionism. During the early to mid sixties younger art critics Michael Fried, Rosalind Krauss and
Robert Hughes (critic)Robert Studley Forrest Hughes, AO is an Australian-born art critic, writer and television documentary maker who has resided in New York since 1970.-Early life:...
added considerable insights into the critical dialectic that continues to grow around Abstract expressionism.
Other people, such as British comedian/satirist
Craig BrownCraig Edward Moncrieff Brown is a British artist, critic, satirist, and writer from England, probably best known for his work in Private Eye.-Biography:...
, have been astonished that decorative 'wallpaper', essentially brainless, could gain such a position in art history alongside
GiottoGiotto may refer to:* Giotto di Bondone an Italian painter* Giotto mission, an European Space Agency space mission for the observation of Halley's comet* The Giotto programming language for real-time embedded systems...
,
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, born 1473/1490 , died 27 August 1576, better known as Titian , was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno , in the Republic of Venice...
and
VelázquezDiego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
.
Today
Art critics today work not only in print media-in specialist art magazines as well as newspapers, but also on the
internetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, on TV and on radio, and in museums and galleries. Many are also employed in Universities or as art educators for museums. Art critics curate exhibitions and are frequently employed to write exhibition catalogues. Art critics have their own organisation, a UNESCO non-governmental organisation, called the
International Association of Art CriticsThe International Association of Art Critics was founded in 1950 to revitalize critical discourse, which suffered under Fascism during World War II. AICA was initially affiliated with UNESCO as a non-governmental organization...
which has around 76 national sections and a political non-aligned section for refugees and exiles
http://www.aica-int.org/.
Art Blogs
Since in the early 21st century, online art critical websites and art blogs have cropped up around the world to add their voices to the art world. Some notable blogs include anaba, ArtCal, Art Fag City, Bad at Sports, Art Critical, From the Mayors Doorstep, Bloggy, James Wagner, Fallon and Rosof, CultureGrrl, Winkleman Blog, Two Coats of Paint, Personism, The
James KalmJames Kalm is an art critic perhaps best known for The James Kalm Report, an online video series which covers events in the New York Art scene. The Kalm Report is shot from a first person perspective using a hand held camera...
Report, Beauty Flow Magazine,
SharkforumSharkforum.org is a Chicago-based web site founded by artists Wesley Kimler and David Roth and devoted primarily to the discussion of art. Its tagline is "Opinion with teeth." The website has recently begun a , which operates primarily as a blog....
blog,
Wooster CollectiveWooster Collective is a website founded in 2001 that showcases street art from around the world. It is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world...
blog, and
Brian SherwinBrian Sherwin is an American art critic, writer, and blogger with a degree from Illinois College in 2003. Sherwin is the Senior Editor for the artist social networking site myartspace, where he has written an extensive interview series with emerging and established visual artists...
's Myartspace Blog.
See also
- Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and look. This includes the "major" arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as the "minor" arts of ceramics,...
- Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
- The Myth of Criticism in the 1980s by Howard Singerman in X-TRA : Contemporary Art Quarterly
- For contemporary examples of art criticism see Documenta 12 magazines
Documenta 12 magazines was a central project of the 12th edition of the documenta exhibition, similar in dimensions and world outreach to the "platforms" of the previous edition...
External links
- Our critics' advice - The Guardian
The Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
July 8 2008.
- In this article Adrian Searle
Adrian Searle is the chief art critic of The Guardian newspaper in Britain, and has been writing for the paper since 1996. Previously he was a painter. He curates art shows and also writes fiction.-Career:...
gives advice to ambitious, young, would-be art critics.
- Judgment and Contemporary Art Criticism conference, reading room, and bibliography.