The Critique Handbook by Kendall Buster and Paula Crawford is amazing. Published in 2007, this small 140 page book packs a wallop. It’s a left hook to obfuscation.
It is designed for the teacher who gives critiques of two dimensional and three dimensional art and the artist on the receiving end. For me, an older artist in his Junior phase of his artistic training, it shed light on the critique that gives formal praise and criticism in the same time. For example, this work was easy to walk by without seeing, then it called me back and I took a long look and was drawn into the complexity and precise technique. The frame leaves much to be considered, I would have framed it differently.
Buster and Crawford take this critique as a starting point to discuss the difference between Formalism and Modernism. An example they use is one of the New York Ten’s comment on Rothko’s painting, “We all thought he was doing tasteful paintings about nothing!”
The book tells its story in two parts, defining the ground in Chapters one and two, Formal Matters and The Story it tells. The second half deals with the dynamics of the critique itself with a ton of examples of all types of critiques of all media from painting to performance art. My goodness, art students get naked for presenting their work for an in class presentation, art school has definitely changed!
Chapter Six is a series of points and exercises for preparing for the critique and the types of questions to ask from both viewpoints, critic and artist. Yes, the artist speaks. In my example from paragraph two, instead of getting angry with the critic with that comment about the frame, Buster and Crawford might have suggested that from a Formal evaluation the comment is acceptable, but since the piece is definitely Modern and decidedly abstract, so the painting should be judged by the qualities of the presentation within the space of the painting, the frame or lack thereof makes a statement underscoring that point. The artist does not have to stand mute and just take it. The artist can speak up and point out the reasoning of her choice, without punching the critic.
A wonderful read.
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