ARTH 265 - History and Practice of Art Criticism

FC ARHU WINT

4 credits
This course will present a variety of approaches to art criticism from the 18th through the 21st centuries. What is art criticism? What is meant to do? Who writes it, who reads it? Does the critic search for truth or beauty, for commitment or escape? Must they decide on one or the other? Through close readings of European and North American critics who display a heterogeneous array of political positions, identities, and aesthetic preferences-and through writing and workshopping our own pieces of criticism-we will, in the end, be able to posit some (malleable) answers to those questions.

Prerequisites: one 100-level course in ARTH.