In Criticism News: At the risk of turning this column into an endlessly self-referential loop, I recommend a tiny book by James Elkins called What Happened to Art Criticism (Prickly Paradigm Press, $10). It's an argument that springs largely from the results of last year's National Arts Journalism Program survey of what art critics all over the country actually do. Elkins, beginning with the alarming statement that "art criticism is in a worldwide crisis," looks at the tendency of art criticism not only to move away from judgment and toward a fluffy sort of cultural criticism, but also the blitheness with which many critics ignore the history of their own profession. No serious film critic, he argues, would work in ignorance not only of the history of film, but the history of film criticism, whereas writers such as Sarah Vowell, who Elkins notes is "magisterially uninterested" in the history of art, can pick and choose from art and culture to their own ironic ends. I agree with Elkins only part of the time (he's quite hard on some critics I quite like), but if you're interested in art and where criticism is going, you'll certainly want to read this.
