In this seminar, art criticism is understood as a public, well-argued discourse about artworks and artistic practices, produced in and for the public sphere. Criticism emerges and operates within the art system—a network of institutions (museums and galleries; fairs and their exhibitions; academies; media; the art market, dealers and gallerists; curators; collectors; professional associations; and audiences) that set norms of discourse and mechanisms of legitimation.
We approach criticism not only as a historically changing practice of writing and evaluation, but also as an institution that shapes the production, circulation, and recognition of art. The course links the history of art criticism (from the late eighteenth century onward) with institutional analysis, the social history of art, and media/public-sphere studies.
A central through-line is the question of criticism today: In what institutional framework does it operate after the dealer–critic system (White, Harrison C., and Cynthia A. White)? What is the role of the curatorial turn and of digital media? Is criticism in “crisis,” or undergoing a protracted transformation? Students will read primary texts alongside recent scholarship and apply analytical frameworks to contemporary cases.
- Kursleiter/in: Marat Ismagilov
- Kursleiter/in: Daria Khrushcheva