“It is to criticism that the future belongs.”— Oscar Wilde in The Critic as Artist

“Ekphrasis” was the ancient term for writers’ grapplings with visual things, whether architecture or art. From Pliny the Elder’s emotional description of the sculpture "Laocoön and His Sons" in his Natural History to current heated discussions of Maurizio Cattelan’s controversial exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City in the blogosphere, writers have been writing about art of their time in a passionate manner, blending facts with opinions. At times, this writing approaches the rigor of philosophy and changes the course of human culture. This class examines the development and impact of art criticism on art and architecture in the context of the societies that produced them and the surrounding philosophical and artistic discourses. Weekly subjects include: critical spirit in the ancient world; ut pictura poesis; impressive versus expressive: critics as artists and artists as critics; materialist art criticism and the revolution; criticism, postmodernism, and globalism.
Dr. Marek Bartelik currently serves as the Fifteenth President of AICA International, a non-governmental association of art critics established by UNESCO in 1949 with 63 national chapters around the world. He holds a Masters of Science in Civil Engineering degree from Columbia University and a PhD in Art History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has been a regular contributor to Artforum International.