Critics Falling Over Backwards

It seems an unwritten code exists among many 'critics' to assume art transcends all else — that the focus of their criticism must be the artist and his work in a total isolation. This artist centric policy is expressed thus:

The artist has something worthwhile to say. We must find out what it is. We must say how well he said it. This is all we can comment on.

Reviewers tend to fall over backwards in their noble attempts to discover the artist's true intentions. But they never once ask whether it is all worth the effort.

The problem here is that if art is to be for more than just reviewers and those 'in the know' then others must also be able to make this effort — to 'decipher the paint' of a Mapua.^* In fact it takes a lot of training to understand much of our art. It is really a field for experts.