The Crit

Here are the most interesting quotes and passages i found while reading the crit. Overall i really enjoyed the chapter. I could relate to many of the things she described in the crit because i myself have experienced them during the many crits i have attended in my 5 years at Mason Gross.

1. -"I'm Sitting alone in F200, a windowless classroom with cement walls in which long-life fluorescent lights cast a gray glow. The CalArts building feels like an underground bunker meant to protect those within from the mindless seductions of Southern California sun. I survey the thin brown carpet, forty chairs, four tables, two chalkboard, and lone jumbo beanbag, trying to imagine how great artists get made in this airless institutional space" pg 43
2. -i liked her quote about what a critique is by saying, "Group critiques offer a unique-some say 'Utopian'- situation in which everyone focuses on the student's work with a mandate to understand it as deeply as possible. Crits can also be painful rituals that resemble cross-examinations in which artists are forced to rationalize their work and defend themselves from a flurry of half-baked opinions that leave them feeling torn apart. Either way, crits offer a striking contrast to the five-second glance and shallow dollar values ascribed to works at auctions and fairs. Indeed crits are not normally considered art world events, but i think that the dynamics in this room are vital to understanding the way the art world works
3. "falling apart in a crit is not as shameful as one might expect. Intellectual breakdown is an essential component of CalArts pedagogy, or at least an expected part of the MFA student experience." this reminded me of past crits i have attended that i was witness to some awkward breakdowns and verbal fist fights with teacher and student that in some ways does help the student in the long run. Later on the same page she says, "Everything goes to pieces in the first year and it comes together in the second year. Often the people who are making sense are the ones for whom it hasn't started working yet. They've still got all their defenses up. Sometimes the person is simply ineducable and there is nothing you can do."
4. Another passage i enjoyed was when she interviewed John Baldessari and ask him the Post-Studio crit that he started at CalArts among other things. "One of his motto's is, "Art comes out of failure," and he tells students, "You have to try things out. You can't sit around, terrified of being incorrect, saying, 'I won't do anything until i do a masterpiece," When i asked how he knows when he's conducted a great crit class, he leaned back and eventually shook his head, "You don't know," he said, "Quite often when I thought i was brilliant, i wasn't. Then when i was really teaching, i wasnt aware of it. You never know what students will pick up on." Baldessari believes that the most important function of art education is to demystify artist: "Students need to see that art is made by human beings just like them."
5. The part where she displays two different perspectives on Group crits was very intriguing. On one side you have art critic Dave hickey who is quoted as saying, "'My one rule, ' he says in his freewheeling southwestern drawl, "is that i do not do group cirts. They are social occasions that reinforce the norm. They impose a standardized discourse. They privilege unfinished, incompetent art." He also goes on to say that, "I don;t care about an artists intentions. I care if the work looks like it might have some consequences." On the other hand you have Mary Kelly, a feminist conceptualist who thinks its fine for artists to have crits where they give an account of their intentions. She also hosts different types of group critique where the only person who is not allowed to speak is the presenting artists. "Never go to the wall text. Never go to the artist. Learn to read the work." In her view, works of art produce arguments, so "when you ask and artist to explain it in words, it is just a parallel discourse." "moreover, artists often don't fully understand what they've made, so other people's readings can help them "see at a conscious level" what they have done." She then goes on to describe the importance of the preparedness of the work and how everyone must empty their mind and be on the right frame of mind before they are able to proceed with the critique. Another important thing she brings up is when she says, "The most crucial question is when to stop, so she asks, 'Is this in the text? Or is this what you are bringing to it" She stops the interpretation at the point when she things "we might be going too far"
6. The paragraph on William E. Jones talking about critiques is also very interesting. "He feels they prepare students for a professional career because 'negotiating interviews, conversations with critics, press releases, catalogues, and all texts are part of the responsibility of the artist," When artists are put on the spot, Jones feels, it helps them 'Develop thick skins and come to see criticism as rhetoric rather than personal attack."
7. Some quick quotes i liked from the passage where she talks about what students want to do when they finish their MFA. -"What to do when finished? That's the big question. Go back to Australia and drink. I don't want to teach. Id rather waitress"-"MFA stands for yet another Mother-Fucking Artist"-Thornton also says that "Two or three of the lucky ones will find dealer or curator support at their degree shows, but the vast majority will find no immediate ratification. For months many of them will be out of a job."
8. When she visits on of the MFA's studio and is describing it i am reminiscent of the studios at Mason Gross. "all the door have been accustomed sized with over sized names, cartoon numbers, collages, and even bas-relief sculptures. "every grad has a space of their own that they are allowed to use twenty-four hours a day. I live in mine. You re not supposed to, but a lot of us do"
9. "creative is definitely a dirty word," sneered one of them. " You would not want to say it in Post-Studio. People would gag! It's almost as embarrassing as beautiful or sublime or masterpiece." For these students, creativity was a 'Lovey-dovey cliche used by people who are not professionally involved with art." It was an 'Essentialist" notion related to that false hero called a genius." This is apparent in some crits where the only thing some people say about the artwork is that it is creative or pretty.
10. Lastly i also liked her passage on page 69 where she talked about the importance of friendships within an artist circle. interviewing Michael Craig-martin she found that, " For art students, the people who matter most are the peer group." Artists need "friendships within a build critique" as a context for the development of their work." He then goes onto to explain , " If you look at the history of art," he maintains, "all the renaissance artist knew their contemporaries. SO did the impressionists. There was a moment in their lives when they were all friends or acquaintances. The cubists were not simply individual geniuses. Their greatest works happened in conjunction. Who was van Gogh's best friend? Gauguin."