Critique Handbook, The: The Art Student's Sourcebook and Survival Guide

by Kendall Buster, Paula Crawford

This unique textbook is an invaluable tool for students in any art course requiring critiques. The Critique Handbook is an excellent resource both for beginners and more experienced students. This text was written to address an existing gap in text offerings for art students. Although the critique is central to all art programs, there have been no textbooks or comprehensive guides to help students navigate the critique process. The Critique Handbook fills the need for such a book.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Teaching

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 2006

Reviews

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had read this ten years ago. It is my opinion that the formal art critique is one of the most perilously fraught experiences in higher education. It is so easy to be bullied and have your work smashed to pieces by people with bigger vocabularies and more experience, or to have ignorance and jealousy and other peoples boredom steamroll across your efforts, or to watch the students who put least effort into their work reap the highest rewards from the teacher in the end. THIS should be a mandatory textbook for any student going into art classes. It gives you a GPS for finding your longitude and latitude in other peoples work. It shows ideas and questions that are valid, that i wish a thousand times someone had asked me in all the things i have created over the years, it would have made a difference - and i could have used such input to make something even better. It all boils down to this: Ask a better question. I can't recommend this enough. Its a slim book that is loose enough to give some guidelines and then let you run with a thousand options. And as a bonus, it will jumpstart the best ideas you ever had, fermenting in the back of your brain, as it describes all the things that could be that you _may_ have to consider...

[B. Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not a thrilling read, but it is a thorough one. I think this would be more useful for undergrads to read versus graduate students. By the time you're in graduate school for art, you should know all of this.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviews vocabulary and approaches to critiques regularly used in post-secondary Fine Arts studies. It is interesting to put names to the different types of critiques and people participating in critiques. A bit repetitive for someone who attends an art university, but includes some interesting exercises at the end of the book that I haven't seen or experienced much of that would be interesting to try on my own time.

[Felicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What should be a mandatory reading for all artists going through the foundational courses. I wish I had this read earlier on in my studio practice. A helpful guide into researching, assessing, and understanding the principles of what makes up my own work.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful with excellent examples of questions to consider and exercises. My only complaint is that it focuses on painting and sculpture.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book on critiques that gives an amazing foundation for visual literacy. I learned so much and underlined half the book.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not totally sure yet. I got it free in my mailbox at school - direct marketing, obviously. Although, I have to say a lot of the first few chapters seem useful for students to get a practical sense of what critiques are for, what the customs are, and some basic principles for how to talk about art.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great overview of the process of critique. It seems to be missing a few topics concerning the meaning of various formats of presentation such as pedistal vs floor vs wall and the context that this provides for the work. Written for students.

[Petalbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Lessabouchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful. I'm a sucker for anything that helps me to create a reasonable rubric for my own artistic process, and as a teaching artist I'm especially fond of something so tangible and easy to share.

[Mills College Library]

701.18071 B982 2010