ART CRITICISM

the description, interpretation, and evaluation of works of art. Art criticism is concerned with judging the aesthetic value or quality of art objects in such fields of the visual arts as painting, sculpture, the decorative arts, drawing, printmaking, and photography. Art criticism is linked with aesthetics (the evaluation of beauty and of art in general), since art critics frequently assess particular works of art in accordance with some presupposed criterion of aesthetic value, thus putting aesthetic theory into practical application. Besides the journalistic reviews and book publications that form the core of activity in the field, art criticism is also manifested in less obvious ways e.g., in the selective patronage of artists and the public and private collection of their works and even in the restoration and conservation (and occasionally in the destruction) of those works. Art criticism encompasses a wide variety of approaches, ranging from rigorously logical critical judgments based on philosophically derived aesthetic criteria to more personal and subjective reactions that attempt to communicate to the reader some of the emotions inspired in the critic by viewing the work of art. Art criticism in the West before the 19th century frequently consisted of broad and imprecise generalizations about art's moral purposes and higher ideals (truth, beauty, etc.) rather than of a close and demanding scrutiny of individual works of art. But in the 19th century, commercial art galleries came into being to cater to the growing art market represented by the emerging middle class, and newspapers with wide circulations appeared through which art criticism could be disseminated to that public en masse. Art critics thus began functioning as tastemakers for the new art-buying public, and these critics began to focus in on specific artists and their works in an effort to determine their relative merits and worth. In the 20th century, the breakdown of established conceptions of meaning in the visual arts and the many rapid changes of artistic style enabled certain perceptive critics to attain the role of champions of new artistic movements. The English critic Roger Fry helped accustom the public to the Postimpressionist movement (which he himself named), and the American critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg did the same for Abstract Expressionism. By the late 20th century art criticism had become a well-established if wildly diverse field.