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Impressions and the short review
An attractive detail from Fairfield Porter, “The Short Review” originally appearing in It Is, No. 2 (1958):
A genuine and ordinary reaction to paintings and sculpture, like one’s first impression of a new person, is usually very much to the point. I believe that accurate impressionist criticism is the kind that communicates to a reader of a magazine what the character of a painter’s work is—a remark of the following sort (de Kooning about Charmion von Weigand’s paintings): “She makes little cushions.” I do not much believe in criticism of contemporaries that estimates importance, because although some things are better than others, as Shakespeare is better than Shaw, this has too much to do with restricting, either morally, like a minister, or pseudo-scientifically like a social worker; and it makes art and art criticism competitors of ethics, which they are not. Some art has a very open meaning, and can be written about in terms of this meaning; but the chances are that if the meaning is the most interesting thing about it, it does not stand alone, it does not assert itself. It leans on what it means. An implied meaning is richer. And the evaluation of the critic is most interesting when it is implied rather than explicit, because if it is explicit, something is almost unavoidably left out. A review can be at best a parallel creation, its subject being the nature of the painting or sculpture. Criticism creates an analogy, and by examining the analogy you see what the art essentially is.
Remarks: 2 of 2
Remark · Zach · 18 December 2007
It’s probably worth cross-referencing Justin’s comments, here.
Remark · Michael · 21 December 2007
Re: Justin’s post, I’m pretty intolerant of solipsism unless it’s the solipsism of a great critic. And even then, I’m not so sure; solipsism shades easily into narcissism. Kant said that aesthetic judgments by their very nature lay claims on universality. It’s in this sense that ‘impressionistic’ or ‘subjectivist’ criticism irritates me—critics who adopt the stance of “this is how I, with all my personal baggage, see things—feel free to disagree” more often than not are merely dissembling their certitude. Critics are teachers. A touch of humility in a teacher is a virtue; too much humility makes you wonder why you’re attending class.