How Smart Can an Art Critic Afford to Be?

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Blake Gopnik, Visual Arts Critic for The Globe and Mail, Canada's National Newspaper, will give a talk about the role of the contemporary art critic titled How Smart Can an Art Critic Afford to Be? He will discuss how writing about art in a popular medium puts the critic in a difficult position, stuck between the very different needs of a general public and a specialist art audience. Nevertheless, Gopnik proposes, with a bit of work, it may just be possible to say something new that's worth an artist's reading, even as one gives non-specialists the basic guidance that they may want to get started looking at art. Gopnik is also a regular reviewer for ARTnews magazine in New York. Before joining The Globe, he built an extensive resumé as an art historian, editor and freelance writer, contributing to publications including the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Flash Art, Azure, and American Ceramics and editing Insite, Canada's leading magazine of architecture and design. He hold a PhD. in art history from Oxford University.