1. Critique in the arts too easily comes down to squabbling over political motivation of artists, over their representation of racial and gender identity and their stance in relation to a particular political ideology.
2. That is where theory isolated from material practices, like visual studies and museum studies headed, a localized anthropology and a sociology, that easily degenerated into censorious political correctness.
3. Even in the career/political analysis of sociological behavior of artists and critics, it has to be noted that critics must be self-critical [Bourdieu, for example, insisted on it]. Critics and historians of the arts need therefore, like financial journalists, declare their attachment by financial interest or career interests. Academics usually declare what institution they are writing from, but few, if any critics, openly declare their financial interests in an art-dealership.
Comments