Though I'm sure he would shake off such a grand subtitle to his article, partially because he's talking about art criticism in general and South Africa in particular. The article gives a beautiful overview of both, and quotes the curmudgeonly Dave Hickey when he said that there are no serious art magazines anymore. I don't know about that. It seems to be that this obsession by critics by their alleged irrelevance takes up more space in the long dark tea time of their souls than thinking about art. And cashing in one commercial gallery commissions, as Hickey does primarily these days, is hardly something to brag about.
And though I see this adventure in blogging more as a conversation than a magazine to hold the hallowed remains of art criticism, blogging and internet publishing makes Dave Hickey, in this regard, look like he has no idea what's going on at all. Perhaps writing on the web hasn't reached it's zenith or even a fraction of its potential for smart, funny discourse, but if there are no good art magazines, nobody's stopping Dave from starting his own online or in print. Such defeatism from the generation that's supposed to be mentoring us in is rather sad to me.
Enough,
go read Sean O'Toole's excellent article here.
It's become extremely prevalent in most archival/historical fields as well, somewhat in response to a dialectic that's emerged out of cultural analysis. In history, as primary sources are studied from cultural (as opposed to social statistical or data) angles, they:
a) become more greatly understood, which
b) reveals their staggering lack of reliability, which
c) makes historians aware that at best, their writing may one day be used to
understand their own epoch, not the subjects on which they are writing.
Maybe I'm getting off topic here, but I think this sort of crisis has crawled into contemporary studies and critique as well. Self awareness makes the job of an academic a kind of perpetual existential question. "Authorities" do not seem to enjoy conversations, and when writing about form and context, it must be difficult to know that your writing will eventually reveal more about the mindset of your era than the subject of your prose.