Canadian Art's archives go back to its initial Fall 1984 issue, and also include copies of an earlier publication of the same name.
From time to time, Canadian Art staff members dig through our extensive archives. Recently, while doing so, Alison Cooley—an intern at our publication from September 2013 to May 2014—came across a questionnaire on the role of the art critic in Canadian Art‘s April 1966 issue. Though our magazine—also titled Canadian Art—did not begin publication until 1984, we thought the article from this earlier magazine of the same name might be of interest to our readers. In part, the questionnaire highlights that many debates in criticism, particularly Canadian criticism, have a recurring quality. For its article, the magazine distributed a survey nationally. Then, months later, it summarized results from respondents—including Joyce Wieland, Guido Molinari, and Iain Baxter. The original questionnaire begins this post, and the answers follow. (And to find out what 10 arts workers in 2014 had to say about some of these questions, read “The Role of the Art Critic, Reconsidered.”)
The Role of the Art Critic – Questionnaire
1. Do you think that art criticism can be useful? If yes, to whom especially?
2. What should art criticism contain?
3. What do you feel is the role of the art critic today?
4. In your opinion, what constitutes the minimum training, academic or otherwise, and experience in the visual arts that would equip a critic to fulfill his role?
5. Assuming art criticism has some value, in which of the following media is art criticism most necessary?
newspapers
quarterlies
television
art magazines
radio
other
6. Art criticism should be directed to reach (check as many of the following as you believe necessary)
artists
museum and public gallery executives
private collectors
other (specify)
other critics
students
the general public
7. Do you feel that sound critical reviews (good or bad) have an influence on artists’ work and its direction?
8. Do you feel that sound critical reviews have an influence on the buying public?
9. Do you feel that sound critical reviews have an influence on art appreciation generally?
10. Whether incompetent criticism praises or condemns, do you believe that un-sound critical reviews ultimately damage an artist with his public? If so, why?
11. a) Do you believe that unsound criticism can damage an artist’s future work? b) or his ability to produce work at all?
12. Whom do you consider to be a competent critic(s) of contemporary art, writing anywhere in the world today? For what publication or other media does he/she write?
13. Do you know of any competent art critic(s) in Canada? Where and for what publication or other media does he/she write?
14. Do you know of anyone in Canada today who could (or should) be writing art criticism but is not doing so at the present time? If so, who, and where does he/she live? On what do you base your recommendation?
15. It has been said that art criticism in Canada is too kind and generous in the effort to encourage and promote the arts in this country. Do you think that is true?
16. If you have answered “yes” to the foregoing question, do you think that an informed, candid criticism (regardless of whether it may be highly complimentary or totally devastating) would be preferable for healthy development of art in Canada?
17. Taking into consideration your own views on criticism and the current situation of the arts in Canada (including the availability of competent critics), would you choose to see critical reviews or straight, objective reports of shows and interviews accompanied by good photographs and dimensions of the work photographed?
18. Which do you find of more value?
criticism of individual shows of artists’ work
critical articles discussing trends in contemporary art
19. Is there any validity to such a concept as “Canadian” art?—or “British” art, “French” art, “German” art, etc?
20. Please list any publications you can name devoted to such national art concepts, with the name of the country whose art they attempt to define and record.
21. Do you read any art magazine(s)? (Please check the following list an put a tick in the appropriate column beside the magazines you read, adding names if necessary.)
Read Regularly or Read Occasionally?
Art International
Vie des Arts
Art News
The Structurist
Art in America
Canadian Art
Studio International
Artforum
The Burlington Magazine
American Artist
Graphis
L’Oeuil
The Lugano Review
Craft Horizons
Industrial Design
Werk
Domus
Art and Decoration
Art Journal
The Art Quarterly
Arts
Cahiers d’Art
(Other)
22. What other publications do you read? (As above, please tick the appropriate column, and add names if necessary)
Canadian Forum
Tamarack Review
Saturday Night
Canada Month
Time
Readers’ Digest
The New Yorker
Fortune
Harpers
Atlantic Advocate
Saturday Review
Macleans
Canada Week
Le Magazine Maclean
Queen’s Quarterly
(Other)
23. Other comments?
—
The Role of the Art Critic – Results selected by David Ralston
Last year Canadian Art sent a questionnaire to many artists and others closely connected with the visual arts in this country. The purpose was to find out how Canadian artists feel about the state of criticism both here and abroad.
The response to the poll was large. Since amplifying remarks accompanied most of the returned questionnaires, it was felt that merely a statistical evaluation of the results would be inadequate. To reflect the spirit of the answers with their varying degrees of optimism, cynicism, enthusiasm, and humour, direct quotations have been drawn from several of the replies.
Of the 23 questions asked in the questionnaire, 12 have been included in this article.
1. Do you think art criticism can be useful?
Yes: 94%
No: 3%
Maybe: 2%
No view: 1%
Paul Young: “More than useful, criticism is necessary because, along with the arts, criticism is a way of articulating society’s values.”
Gordon A. Barnes: “[Art criticism can be useful] to all except the mature artist.”
Doris McCarthy: “[Art criticism can be useful] to the newspapers to stimulate sales—to magazines to attract readers—to the interested public to provide entertainment and an illusion of information.”
2. What should art criticism contain?
Jean McEwen: “Designation, situation, and appreciation. Profound analysis should be restricted to art reviews or articles in art magazines.”
Clive Daly: “Mostly pictures… laid out or grouped according to stylistic tendencies.”
Claude Picher: “It should never emphasize technical matters or formal qualities—i.e., ‘dramatic effect of palette knife… gorgeous impastos.’ It should point out whether or not such work expresses something deep or not… whether such work is boring or not… is mere paint or art.”
Guido Molinari: “Information and insight into the object is has to understand.”
Jo Rothfels: “A knowledgeable discussion of the developing trends today, combined with a thorough familiarity with trends in the past and their historical associations. There should be constructive suggestions when the visual idea or technique is weak or lacking in integrity, and some needling if the artist is not working up to his potential.”
3. What do you feel is the role of the art critic today?
Marcel Barbeau: “To educate the public so that there can be communication between the artist and the viewer.”
Joyce Wieland: “He should be a very creative person. He should not be omnipotent, and try to remember that criticism is only a job and he is getting paid for it like any other flunky.”
René Chicoine: “At all times it should be the role of the critic to write his column trying as hard as he can to forget who his friends and enemies are and to know enough not to have to conceal his defaulting under the cover of gibberish and affected vocabulary.”
4. In your opinion, what constitutes the minimum training, academic or otherwise, and experience in the visual arts that would equip a critic to fulfill his role?
Lise Gervais: “Basically, the critic should love art works, and as love contains respect and curiosity it should stimulate him in his difficult task.”
Hugh D. Robertson: “He should have at least a university education. He should have a fundamentally strong interest in art, or be an artist. He should not be allowed to sound off before he’s about fifty years of age.”
James Gordaneer: “He should first be a good writer; one who can use the language creatively. A sound knowledge of the history of art. The insight of a good farmer.”
Roy Leadbeater: In my opinion, the man in the street is the best critic. He comes with an open, unbiased mind—he has no apples to polish.”
5. Assuming art criticism has some value, in which of the following media is art criticism most necessary?
Newspapers: 56%
Quarterlies: 3%
Television: 13%
Art magazines: 22%
Radio: 3%
Other: 3%
6. Do you feel that sound critical reviews (good or bad) have an influence on artists’ work and its direction?
Yes: 49%
No: 26%
Maybe: 22%
No views: 3%
Jim Tiley: “The artist is bound to be influenced by good sound criticism if only subconsciously—only the reactionary bigot who is too stupid to know what constitutes good criticism isn’t.”
Jacques de Tonnancour: “An artist should be his own critic, from within.”
Christopher Pratt: “The really top artists influence the critics more than the critics influence them. Many critics are destroyed by artists they fail to understand—this has made the critics very cautious in some areas of criticism.”
7. Do you feel that sound critical reviews have an influence on the buying public?
Yes: 77%
No: 6%
Maybe: 10%
No views: 7%
Ella Marcus: “Certainly. The public per se does not make great decisions on its own; otherwise great artists such as Rembrandt, Van Gogh and others would not have been financially destitute in their lifetimes.”
Henri Van Bentum: “Good wine does not need any publicity.”
D. A. Nixon: “In a world of presumed experts on everything from toothpaste to world politics, the individual has, unfortunately, grown suspicious of his own opinion.”
8. Do you feel that sound critical reviews have an influence on art appreciation generally?
Yes: 84%
No: 10%
Maybe: 3%
No views: 3%
R.P.D. Hicks: “It is like propaganda. It cannot fail to have its effect.”
Douglas Pringle: “The concepts contained in a painting (formal problems, tradition, etc.) must be understood, and artists are often inarticulate or misleading about their work. Art appreciation begins and ends with the work itself but verbal discussion can heighten visual appreciation by giving the spectator insight into the painter’s area of expression.”
9. It has been said that criticism in Canada is too kind and generous in the effort to promote the arts in this country. Do you think this is true?
Yes: 36%
No: 45%
Maybe: 11%
No views: 8%
Victor Tolgesy: “This is ridiculous and untrue. There is only competent and incompetent criticism and no reason to believe that incompetent criticism, kind or unkind, will promote art in Canada or any other country.”
Iain Baxter: “Yes, it is too friendly—just like a lot of our painting, painters, and critics. Friendly art or discussion never pays anything. Canada must get tough!”
Richard Lacroix: “Criticism in Canada does not exist to my knowledge.”
Tom Roberts: “I can think of lots of unkind criticism.”
10. Is there any validity to such a concept as “Canadian” art?—or “British” art, “French” art, “German” art, etc?
Yes: 42%
No: 39%
Maybe: 13%
No views: 6%
Les Levine: “Great art is international and it is an historical fact that most people don’t know what country Rembrandt came from.”
E.N. Roulston: “If the artist is expressing his own personal reaction to a situation or scene, he cannot escape his background regardless of how much study in other countries. There are very few people who are ‘international’ by temperament.”
Colin Haworth: “Artists stimulate one another, hence regional groupings may produce regional trends.”
11. Which of the following magazines do you read? Are you a regular (R) or occasional (O) reader of the magazines you have selected?
American Artist
R: 14%
O: 24%
= 38%
Art Int’l
R: 26%
O: 22%
= 48%
Art News
R: 30%
O: 37%
= 67%
Canadian Art
R: 77%
O: 15%
= 92%
Graphis
R: 10%
O: 35%
= 45%
Macleans
R: 38%
O: 30%
= 68%
New Yorker
R: 15%
O: 46%
= 61%
L’Oeil
R: 8%
O: 24%
=32%
Saturday Night
R: 12%
O: 36%
= 48%
Studio Int’l
R: 17%
O: 22%
= 39%
Time
R: 52%
O: 30%
= 82%
Vie des Arts
R: 13%
O: 27%
= 40%
(Only those magazines which showed a 30% or more readership were included in the above list.)
12. Other comments
Sylvia Lefkovitz: “Perhaps an interesting thing may be to have an open forum between artists and critics, say every five years or so. The critic must be examined once in a while too. The artist is examined at every showing. The relation between artist and critic should be complementary, if any final good is to come from art criticism.”
Peter Haworth: “There appears to be a number of ‘Holy Cows’ or ‘Untouchables’ favoured by some critics. They are above criticism. Fulsome praise is their lot and their poorer efforts are described as experiments and worthy of praise.”
Eva Landori: “An art critic is as much an artist as a painter, sculptor, musician, or writer. For him (or her) to write about art is as much of a necessity as creation is for another artist. To express one’s aesthetic philosophy, as compared to artistic manifestations, is the art critic’s raison d’etre. Therefore art criticism is a fundamental part of every culture.”
