Critical Horizons: The New Dimensions of Art Criticism

#finearts #criticism

Through seminars with critics, gallery visits, and writing exercises, this course considers the forces hanging the field of art criticism: increasingly diverse perspectives, a speculative art market, and a turbo- harged attention economy.

How can art critics continue to advocate for the importance of art in a seemingly dystopian era marked by shortened attention spans, algorithm-driven media, and consumer-driven culture? This course will take up this challenging question, by exploring the utopian impulse inherent in contemporary art criticism—namely the position that art, despite the overwhelming power of corporate pop culture and social media, can hold a significant place in society.

Slow reading and thoughtful criticism are essential for defending art’s intrinsic value, and its role in “the good life.” Through reading, discussion, lectures, and interactive writing exercises, this course will familiarize participants with the crucial role that art critics play in this process. We will begin by developing a theoretical framework for understanding this role of art criticism, in relation to the concept of utopia, as described in theory and philosophy. To this effect, students will engage selected readings from Utopia (1516) by Thomas More and The Principle of Hope (1954–1959) by Ernst Bloch.

Following these seminar discussions and presentations from Berlin-based art critics, students will be better prepared to study art criticism’s role in society and participate in it meaningfully; Visits to galleries will offer firsthand insights into criticism as a progressive cultural force. By the course’s end, students will have developed practical and theoretical skills to engage meaningfully with art criticism, whether as informed readers or emerging critics, navigating the contemporary art world with a critical lens.

Schedule

Day 1: Roundtable reading and discussion of Peter Schjeldahl’s “A Dissection of the Modern Critic” (2011); Lecture and discussion led by Mitch Speed: Closeness Eats Time: What Art Criticism Can Do; Excerpted roundtable readings from Utopia (1516) by Thomas More and The Principle of Hope (1954–1959) by Ernst Bloch

Day 2: Exhibition visits to select Charlottenburg art galleries; Lecture and discussion led by Kate Brown: The Art World Under Pressure; Roundtable reading and discussion of Eduoard Glissant‘s “For Opacity” from the book Poetics of Relation (1990); Group writing session

Day 3: Visit to a select Berlin museum with a curator’s tour; Guest lecture and group discussion with Berlin-based art critic; Group writing session and roundtable reading and feedback of student work

Day 4: Guest lecture and group discussion with Berlin-based art critic; Group writing session and roundtable reading and feedback of student work; Roundtable reading and discussion of an excerpt from Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation

Day 5: Roundtable reading and discussion of the text with a visiting critic; Group writing session and roundtable reading and feedback of student work; Short lectures: (1) How to Pitch and Write for Magazines and (2) Some Notes on Style

Knowledge requirements

This course will be led in English. No prior knowledge of the field is required.

Equipment requirements

Participants must bring a computer or notebook to write with.

Kate Brown is Senior Editor at Artnet News and host of The Art Angle podcast, where she frequently interviews artists and writers. Since 2018, her writing has chronicled dramatic shifts in contemporary art through social media and shifts in politics.

https://news.artnet.com/about/kate-brown-671

 

Mitch Speed is an art critic and author. Since 2010, he has written art criticism for magazines including Frieze, Camera Austria, Spike, Momus, and Mousse, from North America and Europe. In 2019, Afterall Books published his book-length study of Mark Leckey’s canonical video artwork Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999).

https://www.mitch-speed.com/