“First, to speak favorably of whatever promising new work I am able to review within the limits of a monthly column. Second, not to speak unfavorably of what I do not like unless the artist has an established reputation. Third, not to hesitate to attack an inflated reputation. Fourth, to balance to claims of past and present. Fifth, to write for informed consumers, not producers, of art–on the theory that criticism has little reason to expect to influence an artist–who, if he is any good, knows what he is about–and much reason to hope to develop a sympathetic audience for quality in art, wherever it may appear.”
S. Lain Faison, Jr., “New Year’s Resolutions” (in Expressing Abstraction: Writings on Art for The Nation)
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
An ArtsJournal Blog