COMMENT | Take Your Time: notes on current criticism of contemporary art

by Gail Hastings
Source: Sydney Art Seen (weblog)

Hastings addresses the ease with which some critics slip into negative criticism. She says, 'a waste of time you say, as you to turn the page concluding that criticism is just one person's opinion, anyway. Whether positive or negative the work has at least been mentioned. So it is not worth contesting – no matter how savagely the critic's disdainful words have unleashed a gnashing bite upon particular works of contemporary art. Ah! that's better, you think, now safely past the visual art page having nevertheless sniggered, ever so imperceptibly, into your cup of morning coffee at what decency has taught us not to: the relished ridicule of others. Hey come on, you now console yourself, it's just some contemptuous upstart visual artist pulled down a rung or hundred. And it's not as though they didn't deserve it.'

Read the full text online at:
http://sydneyartseen.blog-city.com (scroll down past the intro)