After Criticism »

Gavin Butt teaches in the Unit of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His research interests encompass performance and performativity in the visual arts; queer theory; and queer cultures and their histories. He is the author of a book on gossip and homosexuality entitled Between You and Me: Queer Disclosures in the American Art World 1948–1963 (2005).

It has recently become apparent that criticism has fallen on hard times. Either commodification is deemed to have killed it off, or it has become institutionally routine. This book explores contemporary approaches which have sought to renew criticism's energies in the wake of a 'theatrical turn' in recent visual arts practice, and the emergence of a 'performative' arts writing over the past decade or so.

Issues addressed include the 'performing' of art's histories; the consequences for criticism of embracing boredom, distraction and other 'queer' forms of (in)attention; and the importance of exploring writerly process in responding to aesthetic experience. Bringing together newly commissioned work from the fields of art history, performance studies, and visual culture with the writings of contemporary artists, After Criticism provides a set of experimental essays which demonstrate how 'the critical' might live on as a vital and efficacious force within contemporary culture.