Taking a firm stand on a controversial issue these days isn’t exactly the way to garner the sort of uninterrupted approval that we all seem to seek.
If you have an opinion and you stick to it, you’re eventually going to hear from your critics. I remember earlier this year when I was speaking to a life-long learning group I offered some analysis that was pointedly to the disadvantage of a beloved historical figure. It was roundly condemned and even, from somewhere in the back row, I was hissed. That was new.
The art world isn’t altogether different. If after reflection and thought you don’t care for an artist who’s celebrated, prepare for disapproval. But stick to your guns. I don’t really like Monet.
But oftentimes unpopular opinions are needed. Great art isn’t like pop culture. It doesn’t traffic in or thrive on mass approval, and that willingness to go against contemporary tides is in part why the greatest works of art are able to last through time.
So in the art world informed criticism plays a necessary role. While an art critic is by no means someone who just complains, one also has to be able to say unpopular things if in fact we’re agreed that popularity isn’t the overriding necessity of the arts. A critic has to be able to say in response to the skeptical dismissal of a piece of public art as junk, “it’s more complicated than that,” or “No, your kid really couldn’t paint that.”
But being good egalitarians these days, we’re made uncomfortable by the outspoken voice that dares to say that public opinion is wrong.
It’s hard to be an art critic in a small or midsize community when your analysis of, say, a concert performance may offend or antagonize a friend, colleague or just someone who feels invested in the scene. But while the old adage “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” may be a good guideline for interpersonal relationships, in art (certainly the professional art world if less so the world of the earnest amateurs) such a sentiment is far less valuable and even less constructive: Few good teachers would ignore repeated mistakes by their pupils.
In one regard, the professional artist and the amateur artist can probably be treated a little differently. There’s really no reason for a critic to visit a local art exhibit featuring the works of people who enjoy, say, oil painting in their spare time, and open up with both barrels because the quality of the work might not rise to the level of a professional.
But on the other hand, if you’re going to pay for a ticket to a concert, it seems you would have every right to know that the performance isn’t going to be one rife with cracked notes and botched entrances.
It’s a fine line for a critic to walk, but what they do—that determined independence of thought—is essential for understanding the art world and, even more, understanding why culture, as a whole, can lift us up.
Produced and edited by Kateleigh Mills.
