Who'd have thought art criticism was such a hot topic? The old-style stuff was moldy and dry, the new-style stuff is either glib and undemanding, or esoteric and niche. Interesting that so many of us (myself included) seem to care about it with some sort of passion. A few months ago this blog saw a glut of posts, spurred by a panel discussion in Toronto about whether or not criticism is irrelevant. A few days ago a really good post appeared at Iconoduel, a report on James Elkins' essay What Happened to Art Criticism? Iconoduel is a very interesting art blog from Chicago, written with insight and clarity by "Dan," who seems to have a cool and solid head on his shoulders. Read his post on Elkins (and then, like I'm thinking, you might not have to read Elkins!*).
" Ultimately, Elkins doesn't 'think it is necessarily a good idea to reform criticism: what counts is trying to understand the flight from judgment, and the attraction of description' (that is the appeal of descriptive criticism, so prevalent now, as opposed to the fiery polemics of a century ago)."
*(I'm kidding but I'm not. Maybe part of the reason old guard art criticism has lost cachet is that we readers aren't sated by source material anymore. I rarely want to be absorbed into someone's rigid, worked-out thesis, I'd rather slide around in all the murky questions that rise off a work when others start to analyse and question it. It's partly an attention span thing, and a symptom of decadent culture-grazing, but it might also be a characteristic of rigorous post-modernism. One single point of view just doesn't cut it anymore.)

- sally mckay 7-15-2004 6:43 pm


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"...Later, I found Anna L. Conti said go read Tyler Green's interview! Today, target="_blank" Sally McKay writes: "Who'd have thought art criticism was such a hot topic?" referring to the James Elkin review. ..."

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"...In response to my post on James Elkins' What Happened to Art Criticism?: Timothy Quigley, Sally McKay, Marja-Leena Rathje. I'm honestly surprised that a glorified and incomplete book report would strike any kind of nerve. I certainly hope I've done Elkins justice...."

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"...In response to my post on James Elkins' What Happened to Art Criticism?: Timothy Quigley, Sally McKay, Marja-Leena Rathje. I'm honestly surprised that a incomplete glorified book report would strike any kind of nerve. I certainly hope I've done Elkins justice...."

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"......"

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"...Later, I found Anna L. Conti said go read Tyler Green's interview! Today, target="_blank"Sally McKay writes: "Who'd have thought art criticism was such a hot topic?" referring to the James Elkin review. ..."

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"...In response to my post on James Elkins' What Happened to Art Criticism?: Timothy Quigley, allymckay/?28327"Sally McKay, Marja-Leena Rathje. I'm honestly surprised that a incomplete glorified book report would strike any kind of nerve. I certainly hope I've done Elkins justice...."

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"...f the visual arts?" And in general always asks questions related to criticism, and then there's the big daddy of them all, iconduel blogs here, here, and here. Which got him these responses, which lead to these other blog entries by Timothy Quigley, allymckay/?28327" Taget="_Blank"Sally McKay, and Marja-Leena Rathje.Everybody's going wild over criticism! Cool! ..."

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