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Rating: 
Summary: Good book for exploring criticism topics
Review: If you interested in reading about particular themes in contemporary art. This book covers a whole slew of art crit terms. Each individual term is explored by its own essay. Each essay is written by a different author (mostly in the 80s and 90s). These essays are around 14 pages long, so these terms are explored rather in depth. The writing is so thick in this book it takes a good chainsaw to hack through 'em. But the effort is well worth it. Here's the terms explored: Representation, Sign, Simulacrum, Word and Image, Narrative, Context, Meaning/Interpretation, Originality, Appropriation, Art History, Modernism, Avant-Garde, Primitive, Ritual, Fetish, Gaze, Gender, Modes of Production, Commodity, Collecting/Museums, Value, Postmodernism/Postcolonialism, and Figuration My favorite essay so far is the one on Simulacrum. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in art criticism. It provides some interesing viewpoints.
Rating: 
Summary: Learning the rules of the game
Review: Most of these essays are written by extremely prominent art historians and critics, such as WJT Mitchell, Homi Bhaba, the late Michael Camille, Jas' Elsner, and Nina Kallmyer. Each writer explores a "charged" term currently used in art criticism, such as "representation," "social art history," "ugliness," and "beauty." In each essay, the writer explores the meaning of the term by applying it to a single work of art. Though the essays vary in difficulty, each is ultimately very rewarding. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of art criticism. An absolute must for journalists, art critics, and students.
Rating:
Summary: Learning the rules of the game
Review: Most of these essays are written by extremely prominent art historians and critics, such as WJT Mitchell, Homi Bhaba, the late Michael Camille, Jas' Elsner, and Nina Kallmyer. Each writer explores a "charged" term currently used in art criticism, such as "representation," "social art history," "ugliness," and "beauty." In each essay, the writer explores the meaning of the term by applying it to a single work of art. Though the essays vary in difficulty, each is ultimately very rewarding. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of art criticism. An absolute must for journalists, art critics, and students.
Rating:
Summary: Beginners Beware
Review: This book does present scholarship that uses and (sometimes) defines a variety of themes and approaches to art criticism, but most of the writings are highly esoteric, randomly selected, and not always focused on the visual arts. If you don't already have a solid understanding of concepts like "Post Modernism" and "Commodity" don't expect any clear answers here. This is less of an explanatory textbook-type work, and more of a compilation of modern critical writing. Pre-requisite: PhD.
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