The Art of Critique

In my life I have lived very many different artistic ventures. I have a BFA in Fine Arts with a concentration in photography, I have three years of a film degree, and a minor in Art History. Though my use of my fine art degree has been, interesting, one of my favorite things about going to art school was critique.

Now I know, most people dread the presenting and scrutiny that comes with critique, but after you hit a certain trust level with your classmates or critique group or friend group it turns into the most rewarding way of learning about art. Critique is an art in itself.

I strongly support finding and experiencing formal critique at some point in any artistic journey. I think it’s the best way to get to know your contemporaries. It is definitely the best way to become self aware when you make things. It also gives you the incredible opportunity to see your work through someone else’s eyes. The critique sessions that were the most rewarding were when we challenged each other to do better.

Of course, there is an artful way to go about critiquing someone else’s piece. The most successful sessions had a few things in common.

1. We all trusted each other. This was essential because the work that we showed was often uncomfortable, sometimes for the artist, sometimes for the audience.

2. The person leading the critique always had productive things to say. That means the statements were always useful to making the art better. There was very little ego.

3. It is possible to find something good about most things. The exceptions were typically things that were both offensive and poorly made. I once told a classmate after an incredibly sexist and racist film that if he was going to offend us all he should have at least put some effort into the lighting. I think that was the only time I couldn’t find one thing to compliment.

4. Know when to push and when to hold back. There were moments when someone was sharing a piece, and technically it wasn’t executed all that well, but damn did it have heart and soul.

5. The goal and vibe was not competition, but the whole class or group succeeding together.

Many people tell you to do the complement, critique, complement sandwich. I feel like that’s so robotic, and so strange to not see complementing someone’s piece as part of the critique. Vague statements like “that was great” are probably less critique and more complement but that might be splitting hairs.

Productive conversation about theme, color, use of negative space, lighting, word choice, flow both visually and in the written word are the best ways to give productive complements and places where suggestions for improvement are appropriate.

Also the best way to survive a tough critique is knowing that ultimately it is your decision and other people are sometimes wrong.

I think it’s so important to find people that will give you their honest, kind, and firm opinions. It does not matter if it’s in a more formal setting like school or if it’s in a Facebook group or on your vocal page or in a small friend group. Get people you trust to tell you the truth, get people who make work you love, get people who make work you don’t love in a way that makes you wish you did.

Making work is so personal. Whether it’s writing, visual, audio, anything, so we want to protect ourselves and often we want to protect our art. One of the most valuable things I learned through intensive critique was that once the work is out to the world it is no longer only yours. It is everyone’s. The work we make is a culmination of all we are up until the point that we let it free. Then a person encounters it, and everything they are before encountering your piece affects how they experience the work. That is really freaking cool. That is the power of creating.

We’ve all had pieces stop us in our tracks, whether it’s something written, a song, a visual piece, all of us can remember a time when a piece of art hit us in a way we didn’t expect. Critique is such an essential way to get our pieces there.

I may keep up a series on concept and creating visual art if that’s something people would be interested in. Let me know in the comments 🙂