Event to explore role of modern art critic

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This article was published 28/01/2019 (2805 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Advocate, cheerleader or gatekeeper? Tastemaker, translator, publicist or provocateur?

There’s a lot of debate about the role of the contemporary art critic, according to Stacey Abramson, and there’s no shortage of criticism about criticism. At the next First Friday Art Talk/Art Walk, we’ll speak with the Winnipeg artist, art educator and art writer about the complex and sometimes tricky relationships among artists, audiences and critics.

There are a lot of misconceptions about criticism, the first being that artists and critics are locked in an adversarial, even hostile standoff.

For Abramson, a former art critic for the Winnipeg Free Press who has also contributed to CBC Radio, Galleries West and C Magazine, a lot of this attitude can be traced back to mid-20th-century American stereotypes and some cranky men: “Guys like Clement Greenberg, those heavy hitters from the past who really polarize.”

The days of the critic as a public intellectual with make-or-break power might be over, however, and the lines between artist and critic are no longer hard and fast. “People don’t realize that art critics are often artists,” Abramson says. Especially in a small, close-knit arts community like Winnipeg’s, people often take on multiple roles.

Abramson herself is a practising artist, as well as an art educator at Maples Collegiate. She’s also worked in art organizations, including MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art) and GoSA, the Gallery of Student Art at the University of Manitoba. “I’ve come at art from a lot of angles,” she says.

For Abramson, art criticism doesn’t necessarily come down to a pronouncement of what’s good and what’s bad. “Art is so subjective,” she says.

“We all have our different tastes. We all have our different backgrounds.”

As a freelancer, she feels lucky to choose what she writes about. “I’m usually not going to write about art I detest,” she says.

“Or if I am, maybe it’s a good idea to really examine it.” She cites a helpful suggestion from one of her education advisers: “You should spend some time with work you don’t like.”

Applying this counsel to a style she’d never really warmed to — hard, geometric minimalism — Abramson looked at it, read about it, thought about it. “I got to the point where I could say: I get this,” she says. “It doesn’t mean I love it, but I get it.”

Writing negative reviews can be difficult, Abramson admits, especially in a town where you might run into your subjects at the grocery store.

But she sees other strong reasons for accentuating the positive. At a time when contemporary visual art is getting less and less mainstream coverage, maybe a little boosterism about visual art in general, and Winnipeg’s visual art scene in particular, isn’t so bad.

“I want to promote visual art,” Abramson says, whether that’s talking up Insurgence/Resurgence, a big Winnipeg Art Gallery exhibition that helped define a new era in Indigenous art-making, or drawing attention to smaller shows and emerging artists.

“I think we do have a job as art critics to say that Winnipeg is great and there are incredible artists here,” Abramson states.

Beyond the good/bad, yes/no paradigm, Abramson sees criticism as crucial in connecting art with audiences.

Criticism can provide a framework for encountering art, by offering background information and historical context and pointing to larger social and political ideas.

Critics can also be instigators and conversation starters. Take Jerry Saltz, art writer for New York Magazine. He can be abrasive, Abramson admits, but he’s good at grabbing attention. Whether it’s a hot take on social media or a stunt like getting New York subway riders to discuss Picasso’s Guernica, he gets people talking.

We’ll be talking with Stacey Abramson this Friday, so please bring your questions, comments and, yes, criticism.

The First Fridays Art Talk/Art Walk takes place at the Free Press Café on Friday, Feb. 1, at 6 p.m., with a guided art tour of the Exchange afterwards. Call 204-421-0682 or email wfpnewscafe@gmail.com to reserve tickets, which include dinner and cost $25, plus tax.