Crit Cross. A Forum on Art Criticism #8

A New Institutional Critique?

From Hito Steyerls criticism of the Sackler family through the "Tear Gas Biennale" statement leading a board member to step back from the Whitney’s board, public outcries kept making headlines in the artworld in 2019. At this Crit Cross we want to step back and reflect on what’s happening. What are the forms the critique takes? What are its reasons and effects? What’s its relationship to art as art? Are there more reasons to be critical now than before or are the critics more empowered?, are some of the questions we want to discuss at Crit Cross #8 at Kunsthalle Wien. Texts by Jörg Heiser, Allison Hewitt Ward and Ben Luke will be some of our companion pieces for this edition.

The texts can be accessed here:

Kann die Kunst sich das leisten?von Jörg Heiser, Republik, 13.07.2019

A Postmortem on the Whitney Biennialvon Allison Hewitt Ward, Spike Art Daily, 19.09. 2019

Museums cannot ignore artists’ valuesvon Ben Luke, The Art Newspaper, 24.07. 2019

Context for the topic (further readings):

The Tear Gas Biennial, ARTFORUM, 17.7. 2019

A Letter From Artists In The Whitney Biennial, ARTFORUM, 19.7. 2019

Warren Kanders Quits Whitney Board After Tear Gas Protests, The New York Times, 25.7.2019

About Crit Cross
2018 has seen Verein K’s Crit Cross become one of the central meet-ups for anyone interested in discussing criticism and critical topics around contemporary art in Vienna. The principle is simple: Anyone is welcome to suggest a recent text for discussion and join the group, the open discussions are facilitated by art and image theorist, critic and curator Klaus Speidel. For each edition, Crit Cross actively reaches out to actors of the art world to suggest texts that they find relevant. Texts are then curated to reflect a diversity of outlooks, topics, styles and points of view. In each meeting, several articles are read and discussed. Twice a year, international critics are invited to Vienna to put their own writing up for debate. Sessions have taken place at Belvedere 21, mumok and Depot.

For questions and suggestions get in touch with critcross@verein-k.net.

For more information please visit Verein K.

This Crit Cross is realized in collaboration with Kunsthalle Wien.