The State of Art Criticism

by James Elkins (Editor), Michael Newman (Editor)

Art criticism is spurned by universities, but widely produced and read. It is seldom theorized and its history has hardly been investigated. The State of Art Criticism presents an international conversation among art historians and critics that considers the relation between criticism and art history and poses the question of whether criticism may become a university subject.

Contributors include Dave Hickey, James Panero, Stephen Melville, Lynne Cook, Michael Newman, Whitney Davis, Irit Rogoff, Guy Brett and Boris Groys.

Genres: Art, Art History, Essays

416 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

James Elkins (1955 – present) is an art historian and art critic. He is E.C. Chadbourne Chair of art history, theory, and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also coordinates the Stone Summer Theory Institute, a short term school on contemporary art history based at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Reviews

[Margaryta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty dense read. Even though I come at the book from an academic and art historical background, there were still significant chunks of it that I struggled with as some of the contributors either tended to be wordier or simply more elusive in their thoughts. There was also a critical cattiness, almost, to this book that periodically made me snicker, a reminder of the double-edged sword that is he art world. I wonder how this book will stand the test of time and whether revisiting it will reveal something new, whether in terms of much-needed clarity or by revealing cracks in the argument that I missed this first time around.