Art Criticism: Reflections on the Evolution of an Educational Concept

Abstract

Like most efforts at educational reform, initial proposals for the teaching of art criticism represented a promising direction for practice rather than a fully developed educational plan. Educators during the 1950s and 1960s, who first proposed art criticism as an alternative to studio work, viewed it as a remedy for a number of problems with existing practice. They were troubled by a failure to meet the needs of older students whose interest in making art declined with the onset of adolescence; by the lack of intellectual substance in a curriculum that had degenerated into mere manipulation of art materials in the early grades and a narrow development of technical skills in the upper grades; by a perceived lack of balance between studio production and the teaching of art appreciation; and by the marginal status of art education within the overall school curriculum.1 If teaching art criticism was envisioned as a promising way of addressing such problems, educators had only vague ideas about what criticism was and how it should be taught. One of the first to recognize the underlying conceptual problems involved in prescribing the teaching of criticism was Ralph Smith. His pioneering anthology, Aesthetics and Criticism in Art Education, was one of the first works to systematically inquire into the nature of criticism as part of the philosophical study of art education.2 Over the years, the Journal of Aesthetic Education, which he founded and edited, has played a prominent role in encouraging efforts to clarify the concept of criticism and its role in art education.