{"id":5171,"date":"2015-05-31T08:52:42","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T12:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/?p=5171"},"modified":"2015-05-31T08:55:03","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T12:55:03","slug":"what-has-happened-to-art-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/what-has-happened-to-art-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"What has happened to art criticism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his Spiked<\/a> article, What has happened to art criticism?<\/a>,  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 Criticism has been replaced by what he calls ‘art writing.’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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 Criticism has been replaced by what he calls ‘art writing.’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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[251,253],"tags":[261],"class_list":["post-5171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aesthetics","category-culture","tag-art-criticism"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5086,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/the-new-whitney\/","url_meta":{"origin":5171,"position":0},"title":"The new Whitney","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"May 17, 2015","format":"link","excerpt":"The new Whitney. The Whitney Museum recently opened its new digs in Chelsea. My first (tiny) apartment in New York was in Chelsea (20th & 8th), of course, that was before Chelsea became an art center.\u00a0I plan to pay my first visit this summer. I read a slashing review, A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":876,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/david-hickeys-air-guitar\/","url_meta":{"origin":5171,"position":1},"title":"David Hickey’s Air Guitar","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"January 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you like to read? \u00a0Me, I've always been a voracious reader. \u00a0Like other autodidacts, I let my interests take me where it will--I read what I damn well please. \u00a0Lately, I've been reading a lot of art theory \u00a0(Foucault, Panofsky, Derrida, Johnson) and criticism, which brings me to Hickey.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9093,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2020\/11\/working-quietly-in-the-corner\/","url_meta":{"origin":5171,"position":2},"title":"Working quietly in the corner","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"November 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "anecdotes"","block_context":{"text":"anecdotes","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/anecdotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/blue-brush-3.jpg?fit=700%2C388&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/blue-brush-3.jpg?fit=700%2C388&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/blue-brush-3.jpg?fit=700%2C388&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/blue-brush-3.jpg?fit=700%2C388&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5499,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2015\/10\/god-hates-renoir\/","url_meta":{"origin":5171,"position":3},"title":"God Hates Renoir","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"October 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I had to laugh when I read this article in the Independent. \u00a0The story is about the group calling themselves\u00a0Renoir Sucks\u00a0protesting in front of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Renoir Sucks'\u00a0main tenant is, well, that Renoir sucks. The group\u00a0maintains that they are tired of the 'irredeemable treacle of Pierre-Auguste Renoir\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "aesthetics"","block_context":{"text":"aesthetics","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/aesthetics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/diana.jpg?fit=463%2C698&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1925,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/review-virgie-ezelle-patton-at-william-busta-gallery\/","url_meta":{"origin":5171,"position":4},"title":"Review: Virgie Ezelle Patton at William Busta Gallery","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"June 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The works in Virgie Ezelle Patton's show at William Busta span the last two decades. That's a lot of time to cover in a typical exhibition, but not enough time for a retrospective, especially for an artist born in 1928. All works on view were done after the artist reached\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Artists"","block_context":{"text":"Artists","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Patton 'Two Women'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/patton1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8878,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2020\/07\/geneva-oil-paint-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":5171,"position":5},"title":"Geneva Oil Paint non review","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"July 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Readers have asked why I don't have a review of Geneva brand oils in my Oil Paint reference. The short answer is that I haven't used their oils. The longer answer is a little more complicated; I have no intention of trying this brand. I know. I'm someone who has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Grumpy review"","block_context":{"text":"Grumpy review","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/grumpy-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-6-14-studio2.png?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-6-14-studio2.png?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-6-14-studio2.png?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-6-14-studio2.png?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gw6F-1lp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}