In his Spiked article, What has happened to art criticism?, J.J. Charlesworth investigates the decline of art criticism over the past 30 or so odd years. He misses professional, culturally alert, independent, and historically informed criticism. Criticism has been replaced by what he calls ‘art writing.’ Art writing is that amorphous, subjective, non-judgmental style one sees everywhere in the art world today. Art writing is often so fawning that it’s impossible to distinguish it from the writing-for-hire (marketing) pieces commissioned by galleries and other cultural stakeholders.
Although not exactly a hard-hitting piece, I recommend the article and agree with Charlesworth’s main points, only the change occurred much earlier than he credits. I’ve always been struck by how thin and unsubstantial art criticism is, and I doubt there is any golden age to get back to.