Why Art Criticism? A Reader

• Compendium of art criticism • Plurality of voices and styles of writing • With short comments on each art critique

How is art criticism to be understood within an expanding artistic field? A look at its history and its manifestations within globalized conditions shows the variety of the genre, of the criteria and of the styles of writing. This reader is an attempt to bring a diverse range of art-critical voices and perspectives into conversation with each other, with texts from the 18th century to the present. The editors Beate Söntgen and Julia Voss have invited colleagues from various geographical and intellectual backgrounds to present and discuss the art critics of their choice, choosing one example from their respective bodies of work to comment upon. How have these writers approached art criticism? Which styles do they employ? What makes them extraordinary? What can we learn from their writings today, and why is it important in its contemporary context?

BEATE SÖNTGEN (*1963) is professor of art history at Leuphana University Lüneburg. She studied art history, philosophy, and modern German literature in Marburg and Berlin. She is director of the DFG Research Training Group Cultures of Critique: Forms, Media, Effects and co-director of the program PriMus - Doctoral Studies in Museums.

JULIA VOSS (*1974) is an honorary professor at Leuphana University Lüneburg. She studied art history, modern German literature, and philosophy in Berlin and London. She is herself an art critic and journalist and was deputy head of the arts section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Inhalt
Inhalt Foreword Why Art Criticism? An Introduction Passion, Performance, and Soberness: Denis Diderot - Beate Söntgen In Conversation: Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim - Johannes Grave Emotional Collectivities: Julius Meier-Graefe - Stephanie Marchal The Leak: Berta Zuckerkandl - Julia Voss Crafts and the Spiritual: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy - Monica Juneja Practical Formalist: Roger Fry - Beate Söntgen Agitation: Sergei Tretyakov - Valerija Kuzema Snapshot: Alexander Rodchenko - Margarete Vöhringer Decomposition: Georges Bataille - Malte Rauch Decolonizing Art History: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy - Parul Dave Mukherji Advocating the Collective: Luis Vidales - Camilo Sarmiento Jaramillo Materialism and Proximity: Francis Ponge - Isabelle Graw Censorship and the Authorial I: Lothar Lang - Valerie Hortolani and Valerija Kuzema Trespasser of Gatekeeping: Oscar Masotta - Juli Carson Embedded Chronicler: Victor Hakim - Monique Bellan Undisciplined: Peter Gorsen - Thorsten Schneider In Drag: Mary Josephson - Astrid Mania Self-Reflective Connectivity: Lawrence Alloway - Beatrice von Bismarck Vulnerability and Resistance: Marta Traba - Florencia Malbrán Fellow-Feeling: Roland Barthes - Sarah Wilson Documentation as Dialogue: Allan Sekula - Michael F. Zimmermann Deculturization: Annemarie Sauzeau-Boetti - Sabeth Buchmann Coming Together: Demas Nwoko and New Culture - Azu Nwagbogu Gathering Voices, Feeling Relations: Arlene Raven - Oona Lochner Drawing Another Line: Jea Denegri - Maja and Reuben Fowkes Chronopolitical Intervention: Mark Sinker - Ana Teixeira Pinto A Drifting Mind: Lynne Tillman - Isabel Mehl Criteria Against All Odds: Stefan Germer - Peter Geimer Decentering: Igor Zabel - Maja and Reuben Fowkes Tactics of Alienation: Walid Sadek - Ghalya Saadawi Art Historiography: Vardan Azatyan - Angela Harutyunyan Hatchet Job: Julia Voss - Wolfgang Kemp Bridging Borders: Helia Darabi - Anita Hosseini Through the Digital Looking Glass: Hito Steyerl - Ying Sze Pek The Cultural Logic of Financialization: Melanie Gilligan - Holger Kuhn Camp and Credit Cards: Takashi Kashima - Yuriko Furuhata Nearly Unbiased: Patrick Mudekereza - Julia Grosse Retroactivity: Peter Richter - Andreas Beyer Troll: Anonymous - Miriam Rasch Queering: Adwait Singh - Rebecca John Culture and Capital: Claire Bishop - Anna Kipke Merging: Enos Nyamor - Yvette Mutumba Follow the Money: Aruna D'Souza - David Mielecke Reviews from 4Columns - Aruna D'Souza The Series: Jennifer Higgie - Julia Voss Biographies Bibliography Index of Names Colophon and credits