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Art Is Dying Due To The Slow Death Of Critics
I’have always thought that critics are failed artistes. I know it might sound narrow minded to a few, and there are others who will strongly agree. That’s at least what I used to think. A painting critic is a bitter ex-painter who can’t captivate the audience unlike the painter whose works he is “critiquing”. I also assumed that every movie critic is a director who wasn’t good enough for the production house, and is now a grumpy bitter person sitting in the basement with a typewriter. But wasn’t I wrong, yes I was to an extent.
Historically, the notion that all critics are failed artistes, does hold true to a lot of critics. A prominent art critic Jerry Saltz , dropped out of art school and the Guardian calls him an archetypal failed artist turned critic. And he also won a Pulitzer prize for criticism. It was first established in 1970, and first awarded to Roger Ebert, one of the most influential movie critics of our time. Unlike his contemporary in painting, Roger wasn’t a failed movie director or a wannabe heartthrob. He started his career in the critics pages of a newspaper and has now been immortalized in the annals of movie reviews.
But times have changed since. You pick any book by even a mildly prominent author, that’s a best seller isn’t it…
