Beate Söntgen & Julia Voss: Why Art Criticism? A Reader

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, without claiming to be a comprehensive history of art critique.

The editors Beate Söntgen and Julia Voss would like to show the wealth and range of art criticism. They have therefore 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? Examples range from the 18th century to the present, from Denis Diderot and Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy to Bertha Zuckerkandl and Patrick Mudekereza. Each text is accompanied by a short introduction, written by outstanding scholars in their fields such as Juli Carson, Yuriko Furuhata, Isabelle Graw, Angela Harutyunyan, Monica Juneja, Wolfgang Kemp, Florencia Malbran, Yvette Mutumba, Azu Nwagbogu, Sarah Wilson, and many more.