Francis Maravillas

This course introduces students to various styles and genres of art writing, ranging from exhibition reviews to curatorial essays and catalogue entries, and short and long-form criticism. Through a combination of lectures, practice exercises, workshop-style critiques and exhibition visits, the subject will guide students to express their ideas about art and exhibitions with clarity and style, and through a critical lens. The course provides a grounding in the historical and philosophical bases of criticism as a field and practice, and its role and function in contemporary culture and media. It offers guidance on how to analyse and evaluate art and its display in a critically insightful and compelling way, as well as practical strategies for communicating more effectively with diverse audiences and publics.

Indicative references :

• Terry Barett, Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary, McGraw Hill, New York, 2000
• James Elkins, What Happened to Art Criticism, Prickly Paradigm Press, Chicago, 2003
• Lee Weng Choy, ‘Coincidence and Relation: Art Criticism and Heartbreak’, Goethe Institute, Hong Kong 2005
• Daniel Mendelsohn, ‘A Critic’s Manifesto’, New Yorker, 28 August 2012