The Art of Critique

“I don’t get it”

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“Anyone could have done that”

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“You missed the point”

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“I don’t like your composition”

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“This is shallow”

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“That line is in the wrong place”

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“Isn’t this a little obvious?”

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“I’ve seen this before”

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We’ve all heard it. When we put something out there and it doesn’t land with the audience or with our critique group or our friends. Depending on the piece or the day these words may hurt more or less, they might seem more or less right, and they may shake our confidence.

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So how do we deal with negative reaction to a piece that we worked hard on? How can we filter what is useful and what is not? How do we know who to listen to?

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I like to compare critiquing to a game of chess, the artist is playing white, the critique group playing black. You put a piece out there and then you brace for the response. You’ve studied the board, you know your partner’s most likely moves, but both you and the other person (or people) are human and therefore unpredictable.

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You can think about every single reaction a human could have to your work and then someone someday is going to throw you a comment that you will never be prepared for.

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My first set of advice is never ever walk in to a critique with any sort of apology on your lips. If your art is being evaluated by other people, it is past the point of changes until that critique is over. No leading with what went wrong in your process, no explaining your piece before being asked questions. No pointing out mistakes, if they’re seen they’re seen and you can respond to that. More often than not, the people in the room will not notice. Do not apologize for your work.

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When I was working on my thesis I made big mistakes about midway in one of my printing processes. I did not balance color the way I wanted to, and my pieces that were supposed to match were three different tones. I made the mistake of pointing it out, my professor scolded me, not for messing up my prints, but for apologizing before anyone had a chance to comment on my pieces. Turns out, the class thought it was intentional, and enjoyed the different tones.

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Sometimes we present things that are so personal we have a hard time standing up next to them. They are too much of ourselves so to add our physical body to the mix is frequently overwhelming. What’s worse is when it’s not understood in a way that makes it a successful piece of art.

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I found having someone on your side helps in these cases. I did a performance piece where I tied three months worth of bottles of my medications to thread and I stood there for the critique holding the ends of the strings with my arm straight out from my body. It was hard, the critiques usually lasted about ten minutes a piece and I was pretty determined to hold my arm out the whole time. When my arm started shaking I had a classmate come over and press down on my arm. It was incredibly distressing, however immediately after that the professor and three other classmates took turns lightly holding my arm up. This is one of my favorite college memories. That led to really great discussion and I then trusted the class to take further risks with my pieces.

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Find people who will hold you up. Literally and figuratively.

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Know that sometimes things that are not cruel, but really hard to hear might be what you need to bring a good project to a great project. There are times when someone gives me a suggestion, I get mad, then anywhere from a few hours to a few years later I think, huh they were probably right.

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It’s okay to get mad if someone tells you something about your work that you don’t agree with. It is also really important to at least allow yourself to process the suggestion. They might be wrong, but just in case they aren’t it’s a good idea not to completely write it off until you’ve fully thought about it.

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I had the head of my department tell me that he didn’t think I could handle a BFA. I was enraged, but then I worked my ass off for another semester and realized that he was right at the time, my work was not up to par with the nine other students in the thesis course. By the end of that time it was. He could have been a little gentler, but it is what it is.

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A rough critique is a lot like rejection, and rejection of art is probably one of the harder things to take as human beings. As artists. We’re not exactly known for having tough skin.

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I do think good and productive critique does not require a thick skin, it does require the ability to step back and remove ourselves from what we create in order to listen to actually objective opinions.

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We cannot be objective towards our own work, we can try, we will not succeed. That’s where the building of the community comes in, finding a balance between honesty and kindness. Knowing that we might not like everything but acknowledging the artistic prowess nonetheless.

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Finally. The correct response to “I/anybody could have done that” is “but you didn’t”