Comments on: Yes, Artists May Hit Hurdles, But Art Critics Hit Brick Walls http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/04/13/yes-artists-may-hit-hurdles-but-art-critics-hit-brick-walls/ Where all creative intentions go to die. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:02:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Eric http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/04/13/yes-artists-may-hit-hurdles-but-art-critics-hit-brick-walls/#comment-1077 Eric Fri, 09 May 2008 12:13:21 +0000 http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/04/13/yes-artists-may-hit-hurdles-but-art-critics-hit-brick-walls/#comment-1077 Editorial policy should be brought up in this discussion. Negative reviews might alienate advertisers. The galleries and museums pay for advertisements in the Arts section. Without them there would be no Arts section. I have had editors tell me not to write a negative review. Editors will not allow a harsh negative review to see the light of day, unless the the publication they work for has a conservative bent and an exhibition of conceptual/avant-garde art is being reviewed. Jed Perl can pan stuff at the New Republic and Hilton Kramer used to do it all the time. But why can't straightforward negative reviews appear in more liberal or progressive publications? Bizarre. Critics live by this rule: If you have something negative to say embed it in a mostly positive review so that the only judgement that will come across will be ambivalent at best. How many NYT reviews sound ambivalent? Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith write one ambivalent review after another. Editorial policy should be brought up in this discussion. Negative reviews might alienate advertisers. The galleries and museums pay for advertisements in the Arts section. Without them there would be no Arts section. I have had editors tell me not to write a negative review. Editors will not allow a harsh negative review to see the light of day, unless the the publication they work for has a conservative bent and an exhibition of conceptual/avant-garde art is being reviewed. Jed Perl can pan stuff at the New Republic and Hilton Kramer used to do it all the time. But why can’t straightforward negative reviews appear in more liberal or progressive publications? Bizarre.

Critics live by this rule:

If you have something negative to say embed it in a mostly positive review so that the only judgement that will come across will be ambivalent at best. How many NYT reviews sound ambivalent? Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith write one ambivalent review after another.

]]> By: alvin pedigrab http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/04/13/yes-artists-may-hit-hurdles-but-art-critics-hit-brick-walls/#comment-1038 alvin pedigrab Tue, 06 May 2008 15:50:26 +0000 http://www.artisticfailure.com/2008/04/13/yes-artists-may-hit-hurdles-but-art-critics-hit-brick-walls/#comment-1038 Have you read any "art criticism" lately? There isn't any. Not necessarily because of the lack of writers or coverage. All I see under the heading of art criticism are articles that describe what the show looked like or what the art looked like. No in depth analysis or conclusion that the work is garbage. lots of praise though for work that is garbage. i believe that the critics are afraid to take a stand on what they believe in because if the work is condemned, when it becomes the fashion in a few years, they will look foolish and somehow lose credibility. no one wants to make the huge mistake of the french academy which dismissed Impressionism. Also, artists have set up the discussion that all art is good (read, their art is good). criticism is "deconstructionism," which does not apply to contemporary art (their art). and if you think art is bad, then you (the viewer or critic) just isn't cool enough to get it (the artist is not at fault, everyone else is). What i see as the problem, is that everyone is buying into this. with a nod to Duchamp, not all art is good. Good art is rare (a stroll through the Louvre will convince you. the great art stand out.) While this notion of artists trying and reclaim control of their art is said to have it roots with Duchamp, it really harkens back to the horrors of art school crits. Artists seem to have been traumatized by insensitive and unenlightened teachers who trashed their work. After the negative experience of art school, they all seem to delude themselves into creating a safe space, where only positive experiences can be allowed in. This attitude destroyed a non-profit I was involved in. Of course. the artists also want it both ways: their art is consistently genius, while other art is garbage. It all gives me a headache. Have you read any “art criticism” lately? There isn’t any. Not necessarily because of the lack of writers or coverage. All I see under the heading of art criticism are articles that describe what the show looked like or what the art looked like. No in depth analysis or conclusion that the work is garbage. lots of praise though for work that is garbage. i believe that the critics are afraid to take a stand on what they believe in because if the work is condemned, when it becomes the fashion in a few years, they will look foolish
and somehow lose credibility. no one wants to make the huge mistake of the french academy which dismissed Impressionism.

Also, artists have set up the discussion that all art is good (read, their art is good). criticism is “deconstructionism,” which does not apply to contemporary art (their art). and if you think art is bad, then you (the viewer or critic) just isn’t cool enough to get it (the artist is not at fault, everyone else is). What i see as the problem, is that everyone is buying into this. with a nod to Duchamp, not all art is good. Good art is rare (a stroll through the Louvre will convince you. the great art stand out.) While this notion of artists trying and reclaim control of their art is said to have it roots with Duchamp, it really harkens back to the horrors of art school crits. Artists seem to have been traumatized by insensitive and unenlightened teachers who trashed their work. After the negative experience of art school, they all seem to delude themselves into creating a safe space, where only positive experiences can be allowed in. This attitude destroyed a non-profit I was involved in. Of course. the artists also want it both ways: their art is consistently genius, while other art is garbage. It all gives me a headache.

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