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Originally Posted by Simon Bland
If art is the intervention of the human mind in the elements furnished by experience, criticism is the intervention of the human mind in the elements furnished by aesthetic passion.
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And so the "dance" is perhaps not unlike that described by Sven Birkerts in
The Gutenberg Elegies, regarding the steps taken by the writer, and the reader:
Quote:
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Writing is the monumentally complex operation whereby experience, insight, and imagination are distilled into language; Reading is the equally complex operation that disperses these distilled elements into another person's life.
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The goal of critiques (and I'm distinguishing this from the role of art critic) is to speak to the kinds of balance and form that will make the dance as graceful and seemingly effortless as possible, so that through mastery over (including manipulation of) line and edges and value design and the like, the artist expresses his or her intentions in such a way that the patron or viewer can say, "Yes! You have helped me to see what it is that you saw. Thank you for that."
That would be a useful critique.