Art critic

An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogues and on websites. Some of today's art critics use art blogs and other online platforms in order to connect with a wider audience and expand debate.

Opinions
Differently from art history, there is not commonly an institutionalized training for art critics. Art critics come from different backgrounds and they may or may not be university trained. Professional art critics are expected to have a keen eye for art and a thorough knowledge of art history. Typically the art critic views art at exhibitions, galleries, museums or artists' studios and they can be members of the International Association of Art Critics which has national sections. Very rarely art critics earn their living from writing criticism.

The opinions of art critics have the potential to stir debate on art-related topics. Due to this the viewpoints of art critics writing for art publications and newspapers adds to public discourse concerning art and culture. Art collectors and patrons often rely on the advice of such critics as a way to enhance their appreciation of the art they are viewing. Many now-famous and celebrated artists were not recognized by the art critics of their time, often because their art was in a style not yet understood or favored. Conversely, some critics have become particularly important helping to explain and promote new art movements – Roger Fry with the Post-Impressionist movement and Lawrence Alloway with pop art as examples.

Controversies
According to James Elkins there is a distinction between art criticism and art history based on institutional, contextual, and commercial criteria; the history of art criticism is taught in universities, but the practice of art criticism is excluded institutionally from academia. An experience-related article is Agnieszka Gratza. Always according to James Elkins in smaller and developing countries, newspaper art criticism normally serves as art history. James Elkins's perspective portraits his personal link to art history and art historians and in What happened to art criticism he furthermore highlights the gap between art historians and art critics by suggesting that the first rarely cite the second as a source and that the second miss an academic discipline to refer to.

Notable art critics
Erik de Smedt
 * Christopher Allen
 * Lawrence Alloway
 * Guillaume Apollinaire
 * Zacharie Astruc
 * Albert Aurier
 * Charles Baudelaire
 * Michael Baxandall
 * Sister Wendy Beckett
 * Clive Bell
 * Andrew Berardini
 * Bernard Berenson
 * John Berger
 * Vasily Botkin
 * John Canaday
 * Champfleury
 * Kenneth Clark
 * T. J. Clark
 * Robert Coates
 * Clarence Cook
 * Douglas Cooper
 * Royal Cortissoz
 * Thomas Craven
 * Arthur Danto
 * G. Roger Denson
 * Sergei Diaghilev
 * Denis Diderot
 * John Elderfield
 * James Elkins
 * Félix Fénéon
 * Hal Foster
 * Peter Frank
 * Michael Fried
 * B. H. Friedman
 * Roger Fry
 * Peter Fuller
 * Théophile Gautier
 * Stepan Gedeonov
 * Gustave Geffroy
 * Clement Greenberg
 * Dmitry Grigorovich
 * Boris Groys
 * Ichirō Hariu
 * Dave Hickey
 * Robert Hughes
 * Édouard Jaguer
 * Michael Kimmelman
 * Gottfried Knapp
 * Hilton Kramer
 * Rosalind E. Krauss
 * R. Siva Kumar
 * Donald Kuspit
 * Julien Leclercq
 * Louis Leroy
 * Lucy R. Lippard
 * Giovanni Lista
 * George Loukomski
 * Sergey Makovsky
 * Nancy Marmer
 * Camille Mauclair
 * Octave Mirbeau
 * Robert C. Morgan
 * Suzanne Muchnic
 * John Neal
 * Linda Nochlin
 * Frank O'Hara
 * Saul Ostrow
 * Jed Perl
 * Adrian Prakhov
 * Griselda Pollock
 * Nikolay Punin
 * Arlene Raven
 * Herbert Read
 * Pierre Restany
 * John Rewald
 * Rainer Maria Rilke
 * Daniel Robbins
 * Barbara Rose
 * Harold Rosenberg
 * Robert Rosenblum
 * John Ruskin
 * John Russell
 * Frank Rutter
 * André Salmon
 * Jerry Saltz
 * Irving Sandler
 * Meyer Schapiro
 * Peter Schjeldahl
 * Brian Sewell
 * Roberta Smith
 * Rafael Squirru
 * Vladimir Stasov
 * Leo Stein
 * Leo Steinberg
 * Aleksey Suvorin
 * Michel Tapié
 * Théophile Thoré-Bürger
 * Éric Troncy
 * Tristan Tzara
 * Kirk Varnedoe
 * Louis Vauxcelles
 * Boris Vipper
 * Karen Wilkin
 * Émile Zola
 * Ticio Escobar