Interview with Dave Hickey

The following is part of an interview with Dave Hickey conducted by Ilana Stanger of TheArtBiz.com that was posted on NYFA.

What is the role of the art critic within the art world? How much of an effect do you think critics have on what is being produced and sold, and is this positive or negative?

You need to remember that the art world is just a lot of people who buy, sell, exhibit, think about, talk about and write about art. Within this world critics are interested observers who document their interests, as distinct from scholars and journalists, who are purportedly disinterested observers. The simple truth, however, is that the art world is a small world that runs on talk. As a consequence, most of what a critic writes about art is not written for the art world at all but for people who are interested in the art world and want to know what art people are talking about. Critics over the course of their careers build up a reputation for being right or being wrong about things; people trust these reputations but not much; if power is defined as the power to make something that is not interesting interesting, critics have no power at all. Art has power.

How would you characterize the relationship between artists and critics?

Extraneous. Critics write about art; biographers and personality journalists write about artists.