Battle Royale: The Importance of the 19th c Critic

This week's episode, we're taking a bit of a left turn from our usual topics to take a close look at the history of the art critic. Art critics have been highly influential on how societies think about art since the Renaissance, and they still matter today! The critics of the 19th century, however, were much different from those who came after them in terms of their own social power, as well as their emphasis on social moralizing through art criticism. Such critics also arguably had more intense relationships (good or bad) with their contemporary artists. In "Battle Royale...", we'll be diving into what their impacts and relationships looked like then, and how they shaped the art of that century.

Source Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UagX5crB6vHw0wcQZru4hzGec0yFhFp43G47btuYv-Q/edit?usp=drive_link