An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to

art criticism Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is que ...

and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogues and on websites. Some of today's art critics use art blogs and other online platforms in order to connect with a wider audience and expand debate about art. Differently from art history, there is not an institutionalized training for art critics (with only few exceptions); art critics come from different backgrounds and they may or may not be university trained. Professional art critics are expected to have a keen eye for art and a thorough knowledge of

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...

. Typically the art critic views art at exhibitions, galleries,

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

s or

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

s' studios and they can be members of the International Association of Art Critics which has national sections. Very rarely art critics earn their living from writing criticism. The opinions of art critics have the potential to stir debate on art-related topics. Due to this the viewpoints of art critics writing for art publications and newspapers adds to public discourse concerning art and culture. Art collectors and patrons often rely on the advice of such

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...

s as a way to enhance their appreciation of the art they are viewing. Many now-famous and celebrated artists were not recognized by the art critics of their time, often because their art was in a style not yet understood or favored. Conversely, some critics, have become particularly important helping to explain and promote new

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defin ...

s – Roger Fry with the

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

movement, Lawrence Alloway with pop art as examples.

Controversies

According to James Elkins there is a distinction between art criticism and art history based on institutional, contextual, and commercial criteria; the history of

is taught in universities, but the practice of art criticism is excluded institutionally from academia. An experience-related article is Agnieszka Gratza. Always according to James Elkins in smaller and developing countries, newspaper art criticism normally serves as art history. James Elkins's perspective portraits his personal link to

and art historians and in ''What happened to art criticism'' he furthermore highlights the gap between art historians and art critics by suggesting that the first rarely cite the second as a source and that the second miss an academic discipline to refer to.

Gallery

File:Denisdiderot.jpg,

Jean-Honoré Fragonard Jean-Honoré Fragonard (; 5 April 1732 (birth/baptism certificate) – 22 August 1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific ...

, ''Portrait of

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promi ...

,'' 1769,

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. His

was highly influential. His ''Essais sur la peinture'' was described by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

, as "a magnificent work, which speaks even more helpfully to the poet than to the painter, though to the painter too it is as a blazing torch." Diderot's favorite painter was Jean-Baptiste Greuze. File:John Neal by Sarah Miriam Peale, c. 1823, oil on canvas - Portland Museum of Art - Portland, Maine - DSC04059.jpg, Portrait of John Neal by

Sarah Miriam Peale Sarah Miriam Peale (May 19, 1800 – February 4, 1885) was an American portrait painter, considered the first American woman to succeed as a professional artist. One of a family of artists of whom her uncle Charles Willson Peale was the most illu ...

, 1823. Neal is regarded as the first American art critic and was also an influential writer and literary critic. File:Charles Baudelaire 1855 Nadar.jpg,

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fr ...

1855, Photo by

Nadar Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloonist, and proponent of heavier-than-air flight. In 1858, he became the first person ...

. Baudelaire is associated with the Decadent movement. His book of poetry '' Les Fleurs du mal'' is acknowledged as a classic of French literature File:Zacharie Astruc.JPG,

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bor ...

, ''Portrait of

Zacharie Astruc Zacharie Astruc (23 February 1833 in Angers – 24 May 1907 in Paris) was a French sculptor, painter, poet, and art critic. He was an important figure in the cultural life of France in the second half of the 19th century, and participated i ...

'' 1866, Kunsthalle Bremen. He was a strong defender of

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and ...

, and was one of the first to recognize the talent of

. He also defended

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

, James McNeill Whistler,

Carolus-Duran Charles Auguste Émile Durand, known as Carolus-Duran (Lille 4 July 1837 – 17 February 1917 Paris), was a French painter and art instructor. He is noted for his stylish depictions of members of high society in Third Republic France. Biograph ...

Fantin-Latour Henri Fantin-Latour (14 January 1836 – 25 August 1904) was a French painter and lithographer best known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian artists and writers. Biography He was born Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-La ...

, and Alphonse Legros. File:Manet, Edouard - Portrait of Emile Zola.jpg,

, ''Portrait of Émile Zola'', 1868, Musée d'Orsay. Émile Zola (1840-1902) was an influential French

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, ...

, and art critic. He was a major figure in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer

Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Dreyfus ( , also , ; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history. ...

. File:Aurier, Albert, BNF Gallica.jpg,

Albert Aurier Gabriel-Albert Aurier (5 May 1865 – 5 October 1892) was a French poet, art critic and painter, associated with the Symbolist movement. Career The son of a notary born in Châteauroux, Indre, Aurier went to Paris in 1883 to study law, but his at ...

, c. 1890, Wrote about

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, and

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

. File:Signac - Portrait de Félix Fénéon.jpg, Paul Signac, '' Félix Fénéon,'' 1890. A French

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...

and art critic in Paris during the late 1800s. He coined the term "

Neo-impressionism Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat's most renowned masterpiece, ''A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'', marked the begi ...

" in 1886. File:Clive Bell.jpg, Portrait of Clive Bell (1881-1964), by Roger Fry (1924 c.) File:Guillaume Apollinaire 1914.jpg, Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918), 1914, French poet, writer and art critic he is credited with coining the word

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

File:Modigliani, Picasso and André Salmon.jpg,

André Salmon André Salmon (4 October 1881, Paris – 12 March 1969, Sanary-sur-Mer) was a French poet, art critic and writer. He was one of the early defenders of Cubism, with Guillaume Apollinaire and Maurice Raynal. Biography André Salmon was born in ...

, Modigliani, and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

in Montparnasse (1916), photographed by

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

File:Roger Fry self-portrait.jpg, Roger Fry ''

Self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

,'' 1928. He was described by Kenneth Clark as "incomparably the greatest influence on taste since Ruskin... In so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry". File:Leo Stein.jpg, Leo Stein (1872–1947), art collector/critic, elder brother of Gertrude Stein. Photo by Carl Van Vechten, November 9, 1937 File:Frank O'Hara (photo portrait).jpg,

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

(1926-1966),
Refurbished Reputation for a Nervy Painter. Larry Rivers, delivered one of the eulogies, along with Bill Berkson, Edwin Denby, and

René d'Harnoncourt René d'Harnoncourt (May 17, 1901 – August 13, 1968) was an Austrian-born American art curator. He was Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 1949 to 1967. Background Of Austrian, Czech, and French descent, Count Rene d'Harnoncou ...

. File:Arthur Danto, 2012.jpg,

Arthur Danto Arthur Coleman Danto (January 1, 1924 – October 25, 2013) was an American art critic, philosopher, and professor at Columbia University. He was best known for having been a long-time art critic for '' The Nation'' and for his work in philosop ...

, (1924-2013), Danto laid the groundwork for an institutional definition of artThis theory has been described as an "influential theory about the nature of art", according t
Philosophy Now, November 2013
/ref> File:John Berger-2009 (6).jpg, John Berger, (1926-2017),

Notable art critics

* Christopher Allen * Lawrence Alloway * Guillaume Apollinaire *

Michael Baxandall Michael David Kighley Baxandall, FBA (18 August 1933 – 12 August 2008) was a British art historian and a professor emeritus of Art History at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught at the Warburg Institute, University of London, and ...

* Sister Wendy Beckett * Clive Bell *

Andrew Berardini Andrew Berardini (born 1982) is an American writer known for his work as a visual art critic and curator in Los Angeles. Described as "the most elegant of all art critic cowboys", Berardini works primarily between genres, which he describes as "qu ...

* Bernard Berenson * John Berger * Vasily Botkin *

John Canaday John Edwin Canaday (February 1, 1907 – July 19, 1985) was a leading American art critic, author and art historian. Early life and education John Canaday was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, to Franklin and Agnes F. (Musson) Canaday. His family mov ...

Champfleury Jules François Felix Fleury-Husson (17 September 1821, in Laon, Aisne – 6 December 1889, in Sèvres), who wrote under the name Champfleury (), was a French art critic and novelist, a prominent supporter of the Realist movement in painting an ...

* Kenneth Clark * T. J. Clark * Robert Coates * Clarence Cook * Douglas Cooper *

Royal Cortissoz Royal Cortissoz (; February 10, 1869 – October 17, 1948) was an American art historian and, from 1891 until his death, the art critic for the ''New York Herald Tribune''. During his tenure at the newspaper, he consistently championed tradition ...

Thomas Craven Thomas Craven (January 6, 1888 – February 27, 1969) was an American author, critic and lecturer, who promoted the work of American Regionalist painters, Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, among others. He was known for hi ...

G. Roger Denson G. Roger Denson (born 1956) is an American journalist, cultural and art critic, theoretician, novelist, and curator. He is a regular contributor to ''The Huffington Post'', his writings have also appeared in such international publications as ''Art ...

* Sergei Diaghilev *

* John Elderfield * James Elkins * Félix Fénéon *

Hal Foster Harold Rudolf Foster, FRSA (August 16, 1892 – July 25, 1982) was a Canadian-American comic strip artist and writer best known as the creator of the comic strip '' Prince Valiant''. His drawing style is noted for its high level of draftsmanship ...

* Peter Frank * Michael Fried *

B. H. Friedman Bernard Harper Friedman (July 27, 1926 – January 4, 2011), better known by his initials, "B. H.," or known as Bob to his friends was an American author and art critic who wrote biographies of Jackson Pollock and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a ...

* Roger Fry * Peter Fuller * Théophile Gautier * Stepan Gedeonov *

Gustave Geffroy Gustave Geffroy (1 June 1855 – 4 April 1926) was a French journalist, art critic, historian and novelist. He was one of the ten founding members of the literary organisation Académie Goncourt in 1900. Geffroy is noted as one of the first histo ...

* Clement Greenberg *

Dmitry Grigorovich Dmitry Vasilyevich Grigorovich (russian: Дми́трий Васи́льевич Григоро́вич) ( – ) was a Russian writer, best known for his first two novels, '' The Village'' and '' Anton Goremyka'', and lauded as the first author ...

* Boris Groys *

Ichirō Hariu , was a Japanese art critic and literary critic, remembered as one of the "Big Three" art critics of postwar Japan (alongside Yoshiaki Tōno and Yūsuke Nakahara). Early life and education Ichirō Hariu was born on December 1, 1925, in the cit ...

* Dave Hickey * Robert Hughes * Édouard Jaguer *

Michael Kimmelman Michael Kimmelman (born May 8, 1958) is the architecture critic for '' The New York Times'' and has written about public housing, public space, landscape architecture, community development and equity, infrastructure and urban design. He has repo ...

* *

Hilton Kramer Hilton Kramer (March 25, 1928 – March 27, 2012) was an American art critic and essayist. Biography Early life Kramer was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was educated at Syracuse University, receiving a bachelor's degree in English; ...

Rosalind E. Krauss Rosalind Epstein Krauss (born November 30, 1941) is an American art critic, art theorist and a professor at Columbia University in New York City. Krauss is known for her scholarship in 20th-century painting, sculpture and photography. As a critic ...

* R. Siva Kumar * Donald Kuspit * Julien Leclercq * Louis Leroy *

Lucy R. Lippard Lucy Rowland Lippard (born April 14, 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the " dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. Sh ...

* Giovanni Lista * George Loukomski *

Sergey Makovsky Sergey Konstantinovich Makovsky (russian: Серге́й Константинович Маковский; 1877–1962) was a Russian Empire poet, art critic, and organiser of many exhibitions of modern art. Makovsky was the son of the painter Kon ...

* Nancy Marmer *

Camille Mauclair Séverin Faust (December 29, 1872, Paris – April 23, 1945), better known by his pseudonym Camille Mauclair, was a French poet, novelist, biographer, travel writer, and art critic. Background Mauclair was a great admirer of Stéphane Mallarmé, ...

* Octave Mirbeau *

Robert C. Morgan Robert C. Morgan (born 1943) is an American art critic, art historian, curator, poet, and artist. Biography Robert C. Morgan received his M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1975 and his Ph.D. in art education ...

Suzanne Muchnic Suzanne Muchnic (born 1940) is an art writer who was a staff art reporter and art critic at the '' Los Angeles Times'' for 31 years. She has also written books on artists, collectors, and museums. Academic career Muchnic is a graduate of Scrip ...

* John Neal *

Linda Nochlin Linda Nochlin (''née'' Weinberg; January 30, 1931 – October 29, 2017) was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art h ...

* Saul Ostrow *

Jed Perl Jed Perl (born 1951) is an American art critic and author in New York City. He was a longtime staff of ''The New Republic''. Career Jed Perl initially trained as a painter. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College and also studied at th ...

Adrian Prakhov Adrian Victorovich Prakhov (russian: Адриан Викторович Прахов; 16 March 1846, Mstislavl, Russian Empire - 14 May 1916, Yalta, Russian Empire) was a Russian art critic, archaeologist and art historian. Biography In 1863, ...

* Griselda Pollock *

Nikolay Punin Nikolay Nikolayevich Punin (russian: link=no, Никола́й Никола́евич Пу́нин; – August 21, 1953) was a Russian art scholar and writer. He edited several magazines, such as ''Izobrazitelnoye Iskusstvo'' among others, and w ...

Arlene Raven Arlene Raven (Arlene Rubin: July 12, 1944, Baltimore, Maryland – August 1, 2006, Brooklyn, New York) was a feminist art historian, author, critic, educator, and curator. Raven was a co-founder of numerous feminist art organizations in Los ...

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read ...

Pierre Restany Pierre Restany (24 June 1930 – 29 May 2003), was an internationally known French art critic and cultural philosopher. Restany was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda, Pyrénées-Orientales, and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On retur ...

* John Rewald * Rainer Maria Rilke * Daniel Robbins *

Barbara Rose Barbara Ellen Rose (June 11, 1936December 25, 2020) was an American art historian, art critic, curator and college professor. Rose's criticism focused on 20th-century American art, particularly minimalism and abstract expressionism, as well as S ...

* Harold Rosenberg *

Robert Rosenblum Robert Rosenblum (July 24, 1927 – December 6, 2006) was an American art historian and curator known for his influential and often irreverent scholarship on European and American art of the mid-eighteenth to 20th centuries. Biography Rosenblum wa ...

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

* John Russell * Frank Rutter *

Jerry Saltz Jerry Saltz (born February 19, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American art critic. Since 2006, he has been senior art critic and columnist for ''New York'' magazine. Formerly the senior art critic for '' The Village Voice'', he received the P ...

Irving Sandler Irving Sandler (July 22, 1925 – June 2, 2018) was an American art critic, art historian, and educator. He provided numerous first hand accounts of American art, beginning with abstract expressionism in the 1950s. He also managed the Tanager Gal ...

* Meyer Schapiro * Peter Schjeldahl *

Brian Sewell Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell Sewell (; 15 July 1931 – 19 September 2015) was an English art critic. He wrote for the ''Evening Standard'' and had an acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize. ''The Guardian'' described him as " ...

* Roberta Smith *

Rafael Squirru Rafael Fernando Squirru (March 23, 1925 – March 5, 2016) was an Argentine poet, lecturer, art critic and essayist. Biographical notes Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Squirru was educated at Saint Andrew's Scot School and at the Jesuit El ...

Vladimir Stasov Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov (also Stassov; rus, Влади́мир Васи́льевич Ста́сов; 14 January Adoption_of_the_Gregorian_calendar#Adoption_in_Eastern_Europe.html" ;"title="/nowiki> O.S._2_January.html" ;"title="Adoption of ...

* Leo Stein * Leo Steinberg * Aleksey Suvorin * Michel Tapié * Théophile Thoré-Bürger * Éric Troncy *

Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...

* Kirk Varnedoe * Louis Vauxcelles * Boris Vipper * Karen Wilkin * Émile Zola *

Ticio Escobar Ticio Escobar (born February 9, 1947) is a Paraguayan lawyer, academic, author, museum director, and former Minister of Culture of Paraguay. He has championed the rights of Indigenous peoples of Paraguay, writing about and curating shows on the ...

References

External links

*
Good audio version of symposium on contemporary (2007) art criticism entitled "Empathy and Criticality," sponsored by the Frieze Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Art Critic

Controversies

Gallery

Notable art critics

See also

References

External links