Appropriate for use in critique at any level-from the beginner to the advanced student.

 Its uniqueness and universal application in visual arts curriculum make The Critique Handbook an excellent introduction for beginners and a valuable resource for more experienced students.

This text was written to address an existing gap in the literature pertaining to the study of art.  Although the critique is central to all art programs, there have been no textbooks or comprehensive guides that deal with this important instructional tool.  The Critique Handbook fills the need for such a book.

Quotes:

“The Critique Handbook is a well organized and useful text.  Most immediately useful — and inventive — are the exercises toward the back of the book.”

Stu Thompson, Ph.D.

Professor of Art

Seton Hill University

Do you need The Critique Handbook for your studio courses?

• An excellent introduction to critique.  Covering such fundamentals as how to prepare for a critique, how to look at work formally, and basic terms used in critique, this text is ideal to be assigned to all incoming sophomores in any art department.
• Introduces students to the language and dynamics of critique.
• Helps them prepare for and get the most out of critiques
• A lifelong reference.  This handbook is also ideal for students who are more advanced in studio practice, as is will enhance their ability to clearly evaluate their own work and process.
• Is both sourcebook and supplement to critiques in the more advanced student's course of study.
• Universally applicable.  The Critique Handbook can be used across the visual arts curriculum regardless of the size of the program or the level of the students.
• Provides an extremely useful conceptual framework, along with practical advice, for anyone who makes and evaluates art.

How do you make critiques engaging for your students?

• An intuitive organization.  This text is organized into two main sections:
• Section One, Framing the Discussion, consists of four chapters, which present ways to think about and discuss studio work.  Ideas are presented on their own terms and through the imagining or reconstruction of critique situations.
• Section Two, Having the Discussion, examines the critique itself as a complex and dynamic discourse.  It offers the student concrete advice on preparing for, engaging in, and getting the most out of art school critiques.
• Concrete examples from real critiques illustrate the points made in the text.  These small narratives or dialogues are provided within the main text, and help students digest the material presented.
• Student-friendly.  Written with the assumption that the reader may be new to the visual art critique, this text is readable and engaging.  It is challenging, but with a sense of humor.
• Interests students in the material.
• Important issues that arise in contemporary art discussions addressed.  These include questions of authorship, site-specificity, and critical approaches for discussing new genres.

Preface

Section I:  Framing the Discussion

    Chapter One:  Formal Matters

    Chapter Two:  The Story It Tells

    Chapter Three:  Making and Taking

    Chapter Four:  The Work in the World

Section II:  Having the Discussion

    Chapter Five:  Critique Dynamis

    Chapter Six:  Critique Preparation and Exercises

Kendall Buster, whose extensive exhibition record spans national and international venues, is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters award. Buster is Associate Professor of Sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Paula Crawford has had exhibitions in the United States, Canada, and Latin America, and directs the painting program at George Mason University, where she is Associate Professor.

How do we see, think about, and evaluate works of art?

At once a theoretical investigation of the underlying nature of the studio critique as well as a practical manual for participation in this fundamental studio practice, The Critique Handbook is an invaluable resource for examining the uses and mis-uses of artistic analysis. Presenting hundreds of examples drawn from every genre of artmaking, noted artists Kendall Buster and Paula Crawford address the complexity of what actually occurs in critiques. Their book fills a serious gap in the art studio, as they scrutinize a practice that has been largely unquestioned and provide models for more informed and effective ways of conducting and taking part in critiques. Their observations, which can be applied to beginning through advanced studio courses, bring to light the underlying social and power dynamics of critiques and offer illuminating advice on how to make critiques more cogent and evenhanded. They also offer advice for participants on how to prepare for critiques and benefit more fully from them.

Simultaneously thoughtful and witty, this book is written in a style that is elegant and eminently readable. The Critique Handbook promises to become an indispensable and timeless text on this subject, doing for the art studio what The Elements of Style has done for the writer’s workshop.

Kendall Buster, whose extensive exhibition record spans national and international venues, is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters award. Buster is Associate Professor of Sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Paula Crawford has had exhibitions in the United States, Canada, and Latin America, and directs the painting program at George Mason University, where she is Associate Professor.

For the Art Discipline

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