Harold Rosenberg Quote

One cannot, however, avoid saying a few words about individuals who lay down the law to art in the name of art history. Art criticism today is beset by art historians turned inside out to function as prophets of so-called inevitable trends. A determinism similar to that projected into the evolution of past styles is clamped upon art in the making. In this parody of art history, value judgments are deduced from a presumed logic of development, and an ultimatum is issued to artists either to accommodate themselves to these values or be banned from the art of the future.


p. 147, "Criticism and Its Premises" - Art on the Edge, (1975)


One cannot, however, avoid saying a few words about individuals who lay down the law to art in the name of art history. Art criticism today is beset...

One cannot, however, avoid saying a few words about individuals who lay down the law to art in the name of art history. Art criticism today is beset...

One cannot, however, avoid saying a few words about individuals who lay down the law to art in the name of art history. Art criticism today is beset...

One cannot, however, avoid saying a few words about individuals who lay down the law to art in the name of art history. Art criticism today is beset...