The Ends of Art Criticism

’“The time to worry”, writes Patricia Bickers, “is when criticism is not perceived to be in crisis, when there is consensus.” Bickers contests the all-too-common idea that the critic’s function is to impose a hegemonic judgement of value. Instead, she cultivates substantive disaccord. Acknowledging that both art and criticism are ‘at risk of being co-opted, institutionalised and theorised out of existence’, she insists on the continuing urgency of independent criticism.’ - Barry Schwabsky, art critic, The Nation

Patricia Bickers is Editor at Art Monthly magazine and Director of the Art Monthly Foundation. She has lectured at St Martin’s School of Art, London, Goldsmiths’ Collage, London and the Ruskin School of Drawing at the University of Oxford, amongst others. She has also curated various exhibitions and was a judge for the Turner Prize in 2001. Patricia is a member of the Association of Art Historians (AAH) and a member of the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art (AICA).