Are art critics going the way of the town crier, the ice cutter, and the milkman? More than a decade ago, critic Deborah Solomon estimated that there were fewer than 10 full-time art critics at major newspapers in the United States. Since then, that number seems to have dwindled further (as has the number of major newspapers).
What’s clear, and has been for some time, is that the future of art criticism will not look like its past. It will exist on new platforms, be funded in new ways, and be written by a new generation.
To envision what this evolution might look like, CULTURED assembled three of today’s sharpest practitioners for a roundtable discussion on a recent spring afternoon in Manhattan. Each writer is in a different place in their career and has a distinct relationship to their craft.
