«OH, ART IS TOO HARD»

Robert Hughes, a staunch modernist, used to refuse to buy any art of his contemporaries so as not to be sullied by outside influence.
The German art critic Boris Groys also points out that this limits the critic’s ability to speak on the public’s behalf, if this is still a goal of contemporary criticism, because you are already embedded in the scene. As one of America’s best-known art critics David Hickey has said, at worst, the critic can become a courtier for a scene of gallerists and buyers. So as the rich flit into the fly-in Gagosian gallery in Paris, the critic merely points the connoisseur in the right direction, and cannot really believe that they are working for any broader interest. This “friend” approach also begs the question: why can’t the artist speak for themselves?

-The Conversation
 May 28 2013