In Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage, the protagonist studies painting for two years in an atelier school in Paris. At the end of that time, he screws up his courage to ask the master if he actually has talent. The master tells him that his talent is modest; he will never rise above mediocre. This…
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 Criticism has been replaced by what he calls ‘art writing.’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…