What Happened To Art Criticism

Art criticism was once passionate, polemical and judgmental: now critics are more often interested in ambiguity, neutrality, and nuanced description. And while art criticism is ubiquitous in newspapers, magazines, and exhibition brochures, it is also virtually absent from academic writing. Here, James Elkins surveys the last fifty years of art criticism, proposing some interesting explanations for these startling changes.

The mainstream press often celebrates the ‘tweeting’, ‘facebooking’ and ‘gramming’ of art commentary. Yet online forms of art criticism have a much longer and more varied history than we think. Far preceding the art discussions happening on the likes of Twitter and Facebook. Before art discussions took place on social media, there were networked art projects and art critical Bulletin Board Systems, email discussion lists and blogs. Art Criticism Online: A History provides the first in-depth history of art criticism following the Internet. The book considers the core stages of development and considers where critical practice is heading in the future. Charlotte Frost's Art Criticism Online provides a much needed account and indispensable survey of the ways in which Western art criticism has been profoundly affected and changed by the online environment. Building on the history of networked and participatory criticism predating the Internet, Frost traces three different phases of online art criticism unfolding in early discussion groups, on listservs, and within today's blogosphere and social media platforms. The book expertly captures nuanced transformations in art criticism's content, form and style, analyzing how approaches have shifted in response to the evolution of the art world terrain. Art Criticism Online successfully manages to provide readers with a map of the dynamic expressions of today's critical culture. --Christiane Paul, Adjunct Curator of Digital Art, Whitney Museum, Director/Chief Curator, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons/The New School So what happened to art criticism, anyway? This lively history is a vital resource for anyone interested in this question. Drawing on a half-century of examples, the book discusses the new, experimental writing practices the internet has made possible, and its destructive effects, making a persuasive case that art criticism hasn't gone away it's just changed radically. --Michael Connor, Artistic Director, Rhizome

This collection of essays and discussions examines the role of judgment in art writing within the context of a renewed interest in the efficacy and function of contemporary art criticism.

Art criticism is spurned by universities, but widely produced and read. It is seldom theorized and its history has hardly been investigated. The State of Art Criticism presents an international conversation among art historians and critics that considers the relation between criticism and art history and poses the question of whether criticism may become a university subject. Contributors include Dave Hickey, James Panero, Stephen Melville, Lynne Cook, Michael Newman, Whitney Davis, Irit Rogoff, Guy Brett and Boris Groys.

One of the world’s leading art theorists dissects a quarter century of artistic practice Bad New Days examines the evolution of art and criticism in Western Europe and North America over the last twenty-five years, exploring their dynamic relation to the general condition of emergency instilled by neoliberalism and the war on terror. Considering the work of artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Tacita Dean, and Isa Genzken, and the writing of thinkers like Jacques Rancière, Bruno Latour, and Giorgio Agamben, Hal Foster shows the ways in which art has anticipated this condition, at times resisting the collapse of the social contract or gesturing toward its repair; at other times burlesquing it. Against the claim that art making has become so heterogeneous as to defy historical analysis, Foster argues that the critic must still articulate a clear account of the contemporary in all its complexity. To that end, he offers several paradigms for the art of recent years, which he terms “abject,” “archival,” “mimetic,” and “precarious.”

In this intimate history, James Elkins demonstrates that there is - and can never be - only one story of art. He opens up the questions that traditional art history usually avoids.

"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold! Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.