Do Art Critics Still Matter?

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Do Art Critics Still Matter?

Ultimately, the critic seems trapped in an inherently reactive and ever-more-marginalized position. After all, the function of critics has remained largely static while the art world metastasized, growing too big to allow them any real overview, charging too fast for their publication deadlines and developing a slew of new information channels that bypass critics altogether. Not so long ago, Europeans depended upon traveling critics to relate the latest developments in New York or London. Today, fairs and biennials function as seasonal trend updates, and anyone curious about a faraway show can simply hit the gallery's Web site for JPGs and a press release.

Of course, that's not the same as reading a thorough review, which brings us to another problem for critics: scanning is rapidly replacing reading. One major New York dealer recalls surreal results after the first show by the gallery's new star was poleaxed by The New York Times. "For two weeks, people called up to congratulate me on the 'great review,'" the dealer recalls, requesting anonymity (clearly, critics retain some power). "They only registered the review's existence, not the reviewer's opinion." Based on personal experience, Ms. Valdez sees things similarly. "The problem is not that critics are disempowered as much as the fact that people are generally intellectually lazy," she states. "That said, even I have to admit it's hard to stay awake reading most art reviews."

...The art world, like any organism, requires a certain amount of pruning to stay healthy. So the disempowerment of critics--our putative pruners--should cause concern. What is to be done for them to remain relevant? Paying a living wage would help. Failing that unlikely development, conflicts of interest should be signaled to the readers; perhaps when the full-disclosure notice starts getting embarrassingly long, everyone involved will think better of an assignment. Obviously, an unremitting emphasis on clear, compelling writing would give critics some chance of actually being read.

But in a system with so many intertwined players, the one power critics can really exploit is that of rendering independent judgment. Flinching critics do no one in the art world any favors; when almost every review is positive, no review means much. As for fears of bruising fragile egos and, thereby, imperiling art's progress, consider the words of William Kentridge William Kentridge : "No critic's review of an exhibition has ever been harsher than what that artist has dreamt up at 3 A.M. on his own."

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