criticality

quotes from seven days in the art world by sarah thornton

"despite its self-regard, and much like a society of devout followers, the art world relies on consensus as heavily as it depends on individual analysis or critical thinking. although the art world reveres the unconventional, it is rife with conformity. artists make work that 'looks like art' and behave in ways that enhance stereotypes. curators pander to the expectations of their peers and their museum boards. collectors run in herds to buy work by a handful of fashionable painters. critics stick their finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing so as to 'get it right.' originality is not always rewarded, but some people take real risks and innovate, which gives a raison d'etre to the rest."

"i took the opportunity to probe the jargon i'd heard on campus. criticality was at the top of my list. 'it shouldn't be confused with being harsh or hostile, because you can be unthinkingly negative,' said a young photographer slumped on the couch. 'it's a deep inquiry so as to expose a dialectic,' explained an mfa student keen on doing a phd. 'if you're on autopilot, you're not critical.' said a performance artist, with a nod from her boyfriend. during our conversation, an african-american man of about sixty emerged from one of the offices. he turned out to be the conceptual artist charles gaines. the students flagged him over to pose the question on my behalf. 'criticality is a strategy for the production of knowledge,' he said plainly. 'our view is that art should interrogate the social and cultural ideas of its time. other places might want a work to produce pleasure or feelings.' of course! conceptualism arose in the 1960s in part as a reaction to abstract expressionism. criticality is the code word for a model of art-making that foregrounds research and analysis rather than instincts and intuition."

"burden distrusts institutions, because they lack accountability and hide behind bureaucratic ways of thinking."