Ask An Art Critic
September 30, 2010
Being an art critic is no easy job – especially not for Jerry Saltz, the New York Magazine art critic who came under fire for being a judge on the Bravo-creative-competition-factory program, Work of Art.
In an article detailing his experiences on the show, he wrote, “The show also changed the way I think about my job. Over the ten weeks it aired, hundreds of strangers stopped me on the street to talk about it. In the middle of nowhere, I’d be having passionate discussions about art with laypeople. It happened in the hundreds, then thousands of comments that appeared below the recaps I wrote for nymag.com. Many of these came from people who said they’d never written about art before. Most were as articulate as any critic. I responded frequently, admitted when I was wrong, and asked others to expand on ideas. By the show’s end, over a quarter-million words had been generated. In my last recap I wrote, “An accidental art criticism sprang up … Together we were crumbs and butter of a mysterious madeleine. The delivery mechanism had turned itself inside out.” Instead of one voice speaking to the many, there were many voices speaking to me—and one another. Coherently. I now understand that, like us, criticism contains multitudes.”
Inspired by this experience, Saltz has launched a new column, encouraging people to ask him questions about the art world, being a critic, and the intersection of the two. Thus far his answers to people’s questions have been insightful, encouraging and amusing. You can check out the first installment of the column here, and the second one here.
