“Damn, if I don’t read them, who is?”
This is not the muscles of a writer who is considering their upcoming Zine series, nor a poet who gestures on a cupboard full of copies of their first collection. It is a rule from a recent national study by more than 20,000 artists, which showed that the vast majority only reads assessments of their own work.
With publications that fall as flies or collapses for billionaire-restricted media conglomerates, the anonymous survey wanted to identify how-and-artists today consume art criticism. Today released on Substack, April 1, the findings indicate that 73% of the respondents find “little to no value” when reading reviews of the work of other artists.
“I set up a Google Alert for my name, and that is almost my daily routine in a nutshell,” wrote an artist in Malibu. “Why would I read something else?”
“If I get a negative review, I want to be the curve,” an artist replied in Bushwick. “I want to know which writer too shit-talk !! Haha lol jk, I would never. So much respect for critics who do the work <3."
But what, pray, tell, defines a review in the first place? 52% of the respondents completely skipped this question, with another 25% that resulted in confusion about the difference between art criticism and press releases. The remaining few recognized either the importance of assessments without defending them, or shared some variation about the sentiment of one respondent: “IDK about this, but it is bad that some writers only come to the openings for the free drink 🙄.”
Interestingly, 28% of the respondents said that they will occasionally read a negative assessment of an artist they don’t really like. Most of these artists identified themselves as “multi-hyphenate customized makers” or “landscape painters”.
“NGL, nothing feeds my work ethics such as seeing my Nemesis told their work is Shitty,” said a participant based in the Meatpacking district of Manhattan. “It just gets different. But Obvi, I still love all their messages and comments ‘Yaaas Mama’ to cover my bases, and that is on networks! Never know who you should ask for a favor.”
Another uploaded simply a grainy screenshot of one classic meme To express their general indifference for reviews of the work of other artists: “I don’t read all of that – I’m happy for you, or sorry that happened.”
