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Critics Corner

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When we see something going wrong around us we often feel like expressing our displeasure. If members want to criticize something they can do so here. Only constructive criticisms please. Destructive ones & personal attacks have no place here.

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“When I criticize a person, I am assuming that he has a choice.”

Sir Winston Churchill says, "Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things."

The right way to deal with criticism: “Don't mind criticism. If it is untrue, disregard it. If it is unfair, keep from irritation. It if is ignorant, smile. If it is justified, learn from it.”

Healthy criticism provokes thought, encourages debate and helps us evolve. But criticism cannot be malicious and must not lead to creating ill-will between different people.

A Critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car - Kenneth Tynan

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 30, 2014 at 7:19am: "The Thinker, large modele" a bronze sculpture by French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 30, 2014 at 7:17am: One of my favourite art works:

"The Thinker, large modele" a bronze sculpture by French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 8, 2014 at 7:21am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on April 8, 2014 at 6:57am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 13, 2014 at 8:01am: How criticism stops us

http://ericmaisel.com/blog/

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 29, 2013 at 9:30am: http://ericmaisel.com/fine-arts-america/
5 Tips for Dealing with Criticism
5 Tips for Dealing with Criticism

Anyone who puts work on public display invites criticism. What are the best ways to deal with the criticism that may be coming? Read on!

1. Grow a thicker skin

Your prime strategy is to grow a thicker skin and let criticism bounce right off of you. If your skin is very sensitive, you feel every tickle and change in temperature. If you grow your skin thicker—through attitude change and cognitive work—even the rudest criticism will bounce right off of you!

2. Adopt a more philosophical attitude

Accept that criticism is part of life. Accept that criticism is part of an artist’s life. Accept that no one gets through life unscathed and that no one is guaranteed only milk and honey. Accept that life is not fair and that everyone has an opinion. Accept!

3. Learn the dance of attachment and detachment

You want to care about your art, dream of your success, have ambitions and hopes, and in countless other ways “invest” in your identity as an artist. At the same time you must detach and not rise and fall according to how your work is received. This is an intricate dance that requires thought and attention if you are to dance it well.

4. Silence self-criticism

It is one thing if someone “out there” criticizes you. It is another, worse thing if you are already feeling critical of yourself and if criticism from the world amplifies and exacerbates your negative appraisal of yourself. You can’t control what the world says; but you can decide not to bad mouth yourself!

5. Appraise situations correctly

Are you sure that you are even being criticized? If a gallery owner says he is busy and will chat with you tomorrow, maybe he is just busy! Why take that as implicit criticism of you or your work in the absence of any real reason to consider that criticism? Learn to gauge when you are actually being criticized!

Learn more tips in my book Toxic Criticism:

http://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Criticism-Friends-Coworkers-Yourself/dp...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 24, 2013 at 5:42am: http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/philosoph...

Steps you can take to ease the sting of criticism

To become a top performer, you’ll need to open yourself up to feedback from those around you. Here are some steps you can take to ease the sting of criticism and begin to make it work for you, instead of against you.

Hit the Pause Button - It’s important to maintain your composure and not lash back or respond defensively to criticism. Take a breath. Don’t do or say anything. This brief pause not only helps you compose yourself and prepare to listen to what the other person has to say, it demonstrates your poise and self-confidence. Maintaining your composure when criticized shows that you’re in control.

Turn On Your Brain and Turn Off Your Emotions - It’s important to disconnect your automatic emotional response to criticism. Otherwise you won’t be able to objectively consider the value of the information. Focus on the words and facts, not on the feelings they generate within you. Regardless of how undiplomatic the other person is in delivering the feedback, tell yourself that it is designed to help you improve, not to tear you down.

Listen Carefully - Listen intently to what the other person is saying. If you’re busy formulating your rebuttal, you may miss some valuable information that can help you avoid errors in the future or improve your overall performance.

While any criticism can be discouraging, it’s important to keep in mind that negative feedback can contribute significantly to faster growth and higher performance.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on August 9, 2013 at 5:57am: Usually questions are about how to sell paintings, so it's a change to have a query about not wanting to sell. I think it's a bit like when you start dating someone, that there's this sequence of expectancy. Dating leads to "Are you serious about the relationship?", to "When are you getting married?", then to "When are you going to have kids", and if you do then to "When are you going to have another?", and so on.

With painting, there's an expectancy that you will sell your work. But you don't have to, and doing so changes your relationship with your art so there's a case to be made for not selling if you're not intending to make a career/living from it. You can paint for yourself, always, and never sell anything. You don't need external verification (i.e. sales) to be an artist.
"But I Don't Want to Sell..."
http://painting.about.com/b/2013/07/30/but-i-dont-want-to-sell.htm?...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 14, 2013 at 6:00am: PIerre Berger • There is a general crisis of art critic, specially with plastic arts. But I thinc critic is more necessary than ever, since the production of art is more abundant each year, and we have to choose. Reject scientific methods equals to accept only the market rules, with the domination of big groups (Hollywood) or ultra-rich collectors.

sally annett • My fascination through out is with the language.
Science provides the opportunity to de and reconstruct the terminology as well as the approach - which offers many outcomes and options - personally I would welcome a more inclusive form which has less provision for language to exclude and intimidate!

PIerre Berger • Yes. A useful aspect of science here would be to leave "moral" evaluations (good painting/bad painting) to a more descriptive form of critic, including quantitative parameters and leading to ranking according to these parameters (letting everybody a Kantian liberty to judge for thermselve...)

claudia volders • Dear Dr. Krishna Kumari,
Thinking about your question 'Can Science Be Used to Critique Art?', I will inform you my searching.
Did you ever come into a certain room in a museum, and you only could look at one painting? All the other paintings became invisible, how big even they were. It looked like that one painting attracted so much, like you were in a field of energy which totaly connected to your own. These experiences fascinated me.
So I started to do some work with it. The questions were: can you measure the energy of art? If yes, how? I still don't have the answers, but talking with scientists they all have a meaning that they believe in 'energy of art', and 'yes, you probably can measure it'.
Experiences, infrared camera and heartcoherent which I do, is not enough yet. But very interesting! Maybe anyone has an idea!

Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa • Thank you so much for all these in sights. Yes, Ms. Volders, I have faced the situation of getting attracted to a particular art work in an art gallery. There are various reasons scientists give for this attractions. If you watch Dr. Ramachandran's videos on neuro-aesthetics, Dr Zeiki's ( I hope I got the spelling right) explanations you will get an idea why this happens. I use some scientific visually drawing methods to attract people to some of my works and I have succeeded and people tell me they get attracted to very unattractive themes I use like "Disease in a dish"! This is a challenge and science can make you overcome this challenge. So when people say scientific methods can also be used to critique art, they think they can do it.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 13, 2013 at 6:00am: More comments on the article below.

sally annett • The general systems for Critiques are derived from Art History, Religion and Philosophy, so it is an interesting slant!

PIerre Berger • I see two points :

1. Paris hosts an important scientific laboratory serving arts, and critics, the C2RMF (see Wikepia). He deals mainly with conservation and authentification. The latter point is of primal importance for critcs.

2. Computer analyses of works of any sort are (and could be more) useful to authentificatino, but also to description, characterization and evaluation (... oops ?) of works. I have elaborated on this point at Laval Virtual 2013. The whole of my diccan.com website is a use of technology for art critic.

Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa • Thank you, Ms. Annet and Mr. Berger, for your replies.Scientists are trying new methods and science is entering new arenas. What is wrong with it? Out right rejection of anything new or science-related shows only the inner insecurities of people. Let us see where this leads to. It is heart-warming to know that art critics like Mr. Berger are already using technology for art critic. People have to be a bit daring and innovative to accept new concepts.