Entry 2

The History of Art Criticism

Art criticism comes in trends for what’s ‘in’, in terms of art and themes – similar to social media trends, music and fashion it comes and goes.

- The middle ages focused on religious works and anything other than that was not considered art or perhaps was too scandalous to the public eye

- The renaissance focused on revitalising interest in the arts, art criticism and Giorgo Visari, known as the first art historian, wrote about the artists of the time and their works

- Then there was the enlightenment marking the rise of systematic art criticism focusing on reason, taste and judgement where Diderot highlighted the aesthetic experience and individual perception

- John Ruskin and Charles Baudelaire came into play in the 19th century enphasizing the diversification in art criticism where Ruskin focused on the social duties of art being a romantic and Baudelair explored aesthetics.

Then came Rosenburg and Greenberg, then the feminists and the list goes on to present day.Needless to say, art criticism, both kind and brutal, played a critical role in the development and variation of works we see nowadays. Criticism is there to put art in the public eye, perhaps one is not used to searching for artworks or comes from a completely differing background, to incite discussion, to provoke the viewer’s brain and to make them stop and think for just a moment.