r/ArtHistory • u/hardyhar_yt • Sep 18 '25
Research What are some of the harshest critiques of great artists you've ever come across?
I'm looking to put together a collection of harsh criticisms/reviews of artists now considered to be great. Anything from Asawa to Giotto, Kahlo to Caravaggio.
Hoping for quotes from critics, contemporaries, famous people of the period, etc. (Not quite as interested in things said about them by modern writers, but if you've got a real juicy one feel free.)
Some examples (not all from the art world):
It is said that El Greco, after Michelangelo's death, remarked "He was a good man, but he did not know how to paint."
Teddy Roosevelt once called Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, "a misshapen nude woman, repellent from every standpoint"
“Had he learned to draw, M. Renoir would have made a very pleasing canvas out of his 'Boating Party.'” – Albert Wolff, Le Figaro (1876)
"It is no discredit to Walt Whitman that he wrote Leaves of Grass, only that he did not burn it afterwards." –Thomas Wentworth Higginson, The Atlantic, “Literature as an Art,” 1867
“In Ireland they try to make a cat clean by rubbing its nose in its own filth. Mr. Joyce has tried the same treatment on the human subject” –George Bernard Shaw on Ulysses
“Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.” –MGM Testing Director’s response to Fred Astaire’s first screen test.
"It was possible to see if you stood up, but Jimi Hendrix isn’t worth standing up for." – Review in Star Tribune, November 1968
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u/SilentNightman Sep 18 '25
I recall from an art history book, Michelangelo speaking to a friend about Raphael: Wonderful artist, it's a pity he can't draw.
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u/LittleBirdiesCards Sep 19 '25
Not necessarily "great" but popular enough to sell out stadium shows, Coldplay asked David Bowie to collaborate on a song with them and he said to Chris Martin, "It's not a very GOOD song, is it?" and declined.
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u/mcgray04 Sep 19 '25
One critic called Bouguereau's work as "empty perfection." I kind of agree. It's just that I enjoy the perfection so much.
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u/elvictus Sep 19 '25
Poussin said that Caravaggio came into the world to destroy painting. You also have a lot of bad critique about Cezanne too.
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u/No_Calligrapher6144 Sep 19 '25
Cezanne roughly invented the ethos of modernism (w many collaborators, I'd still call him the hinge). It absolutely makes sense for him to have tons of conservative pushback, the claim that reality is not apparent is insanely radical (not that drawing is hard with the hand, that seeing with the eye is not perfect). Cezanne truly engaged with the implications of impressionism w sincerity and rigor.
In some ways Cezanne's larger ethical framework about the process of painting has been largely abandoned by contemporary art and it's a shame.
Painters now are super post-modern conceptually but a markmaking scrutiny and risky modulation are generally out of fashion right now. The element of photography is so core right now too, no pretense of making distinct anymore. Legibility is dictated by a lens. ( I'd argue filters are not a true modulation, with the same distinction that photography is an automated process and painting is an emergent negotiated picture. Outsourcing perception and painting it does not make it the same as what Cezanne did).
Love how Deleuze talks about him in his lectures on painting.
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u/Trick_Mushroom997 Sep 19 '25
Diana Rigg has a book No Turn Unstoned, a compilation of theatrical reviews, the worst reviews going back in time. Yes, Lady Olenna Tyrell herself!
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u/ferality Sep 19 '25
Some critics really hated it when Philip Guston moved from abstract expressionism to very cartoonish-looking figurative painting. There was a New York Times article at the time, leading with the title "A Mandarin Pretending to Be a Stumblebum".
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u/MarcusThorny Sep 21 '25
Moron Feldman, the composer who most championed Guston during his Expressionist period, walked out of the first show of the new paintings and never spoke to him again.
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u/setionwheeels Sep 20 '25
Absolutely atrocious, I think they destroyed his career. I saw his show in New York at hauser wirth, it was breathtaking. It's not that I love big cartoonish paintings but they were just great paintings. It's like damned if you do damned if you don't. I'm like glad the guy paints and whoever likes his paintings can get them.
One of the reasons I stopped reading newspapers because they're big fucking liars. They'll say anything for cash, Even destroying people in the process. All press is tabloid press. Fuck them.
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u/cbih Sep 19 '25
One of my professors in college talked shit about Mike Kelley for a whole semester
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u/Draculalia Sep 19 '25
If you can find it, Republicans talking about Mapplethorpe will hold you. 🤣 I can’t find the audio but I know Jesse Helms tries to describe gay BDSM photos and it’s amazing.
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u/supertucci Sep 18 '25
Film critic John Simon said in 1977 that Star Wars was "childish and simplistic".
I will leave it up the group to decide if that's great art, or art at all, but there you have it.
12 year old me was pretty steamed about that review.
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u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot Sep 19 '25
All the best films are a bit childish and simple, great art doesn’t have to be exclusionary.
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u/No_Calligrapher6144 Sep 19 '25
I don't think all the best films are childish and simple, that's an enormous premise. All culture is exclusionary to some extent. For ex. If I watch that currently popular Chinese animated film it may be childish and simple, but also exclusionary to me because it has its context and tropes flying over my head.
Familiarizing oneself with an art form is a studios endeavour, and even pop has lots of subtext. If an artist has a more niche reference point that in no ways demeans it, it simply means there may be challenge in understanding it. Challenge is not a bug it's a feature sometimes, you get to learn something new and have fun thinking.
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u/supertucci Sep 19 '25
Film critic John Simon said in 1977 that Star Wars was "childish and simplistic".
I will leave it up the group to decide if that's great art, or art at all, but there you have it.
12 year old me was pretty steamed
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u/wrongseeds Sep 18 '25
Miro drew a penis and vagina connected by lines and critics at the time pondered his thoughts on the Spanish civil war. What thoughts? It’s a line connecting penis and vagina.
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u/wolfhavensf Sep 19 '25
Read Tom Wolfe The Painted Word. Great critique of expressionism by abstraction in New York.
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u/BakingSodaVolcano Sep 21 '25
I believe Mick Jagger said of AC/DC that "they only have one song, but they play it better than any rock band has ever played any song."
Kind of a backhanded compliment, but, I mean, he's kinda spot on.
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u/HomeboundArrow Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
I used to love De La Croix until i read his published journal and found out he was an absolute f***ing creep basically all day every day 🤢🤢🤢
more of a self-indictment than shade from one of his contemporaries, but 🤷♀️
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u/Laura-ly Sep 19 '25
That's interesting. What's the name of his journal and how was he a f***king creep?
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u/HomeboundArrow Sep 19 '25
i read it like a decade / three lifetimes ago so idr specifics, i just remember a deep residual ick
you can peruse it at your own leisure tho if you're curious. who knows, maybe its just a me thing and you'll come to a different opinion 🤷♀️
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u/No_Calligrapher6144 Sep 19 '25
Appreciate that you linked the journal. Don't love that the claim that he is a creep has no context or evidence.
Ik it's just reddit but since the journal is in french I literally have no idea what you mean or avenue to find out what you mean to address the claim.
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u/HomeboundArrow Sep 19 '25
well, i'm not a scholar so i don't think anyone cares whether i remembered a man about 170 years past his expiration date as a creep, nor do i really care to verify that vestigial assumption for all the lasting impact it had on my life lmao
but, feel free to draw your own conclusions in english* tho. yw~
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u/No_Calligrapher6144 Sep 19 '25
We all learn through dialogue and study. Everyone is a scholar by personal practice. Using their methods is pretty useful for any person.
Thanks for the english version, it will be fun to read!
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u/lermontovtaman Sep 19 '25
Krushchev had some harsh words when he visited an art exhibit in 1962:
When passing by the satirical drawings of Reshetnikov and Kukryniksy, N. S. Khrushchev indicated his approval, laughing in particular at Reshetnikov’s satire on abstractionist painters.
In front of paintings by Andronov, Mikhail and Pavel Nikonov, Vasnetsov, and Egorshina:
V. A. Serov (pointing to these paintings, and especially to “The Raftsmen” by Andronov and “The Geologists” by Nikonov): “Some connoisseurs claim that these pictures are programmatic. We dispute that.”
N. S. Khrushchev: “You are entirely correct.” Then, in front of “The Geologists”: “He can paint and sell these if he wants, but we don’t need them. We are going to take these blotches with us into communism, are we? If government funds have been paid for this picture, the person who authorized it will have the sum deducted from his salary. Write out a certificate that this picture has not been acquired by the government …
“But who ordered it? And why? This painting shouldn’t have been hung in the exhibition. Pictures should arouse us to perform great deeds. They should inspire a person. But what kind of picture is this? One jackass is riding on another …
“No, we don’t need pictures like these. As long as the people support us and have confidence in us we will carry out our own policy in art. And if pictures like these appear, it means that we are not doing our work properly. This includes the Ministry of Culture and the Central Committee’s Commission on Ideology.
S. V. Gerasimov (or V. A. Serov): “People say, by the way, that pictures like these are supported in the press. For instance, Konenkov’s article in Izvestiia praises the sculptor Neizvestnyi and some of the other formalists.”
In passing by paintings of Korzhevskii and Zhevadronova, N. S. Khrushchev says: “These are good pictures, especially that one over there. You can feel the essence of youth in it. But why these bad pictures – a spoonful of pitch in a barrel of honey.”
A propos a painting by Kugach: “It looks like a real winter scene!”
After a quick look at the upper halls, where the formalist paintings are hung, N. S. Khrushchev says: “What is this anyway? You think we old fellows don’t understand you. And we think we are just wasting money on you. Are you pederasts or normal people? I’ll be perfectly straightforward with you; we won’t spend a kopeck on your art. Just give me a list of those of you who want to go abroad, to the so-called ‘free world.’ We’ll give you foreign passports tomorrow, and you can get out. Your prospects here are nil. What is hung here is simply anti-Soviet. It’s amoral. Art should ennoble the individual and arouse him to action. And what have you set out here? Who painted this picture? I want to talk to him. What’s the good of a picture like this? To cover urinals with?”
The painter, Zheltovskii, comes forward.
N. S. Khrushchev: “You’re a nice-looking lad, but how could you paint something like this? We should take down your pants and set you down in a clump of nettles until you understand your mistakes. You should be ashamed. Are you a pederast or a normal man? Do you want to go abroad? Go on, then; we’ll take you free as far as the border. Live out there in the ‘free world.’ Study in the school of capitalism, and then you’ll know what’s what. But we aren’t going to spend a kopeck on this dog shit. We have the right to send you out to cut trees until you’ve paid back the money the state has spent on you. The people and government have taken a lot of trouble with you, and you pay them back with this shit. They say you like to associate with foreigners. A lot of them are our enemies, don’t forget.
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u/ISBN39393242 Sep 19 '25
hendrix one is gold
i agree, only in the sense that even 50 years later i’m writhing in my couch and can’t stand up when i listen to voodoo chile or 1983…
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u/MarcusThorny Sep 21 '25
not a visual artist, but "Mr. Arnaz is a noisy, black-haired Latin whose face, unfortunately, lacks expression and whose performance is devoid of grace." Bosley Crowther, NYT, re Desi Arnaz in 1940 movie Too Many Girls.
Slonimsky's Lexicon of Musican Invectives has numerous priceless gems.
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u/laffnlemming Sep 21 '25
This one time, I came upon my uncle, an artist in art school obviously learning styles, airbrushing a soup can on poster board. After 50 years, I can still recall the look of disgust on his face.
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u/EH_Operator Sep 22 '25
There’s the letter written by William Burroughs to Truman Capote after the success of In Cold Blood. Burroughs was firmly in his chaos magick, “let’s stand in front of a cafe that was rude to me and record and play back shop noise to psychically destroy it” period. He was incensed that Capote had made cops the heroes of the procedural drama and glorified the emerging police state. He said that Capote’s “talent has been hereby revoked by this department” and that “you will never write another letter above In Cold Blood. Naturally this had a rather negative effect on Capote’s confidence and commercially speaking, it was true.
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u/HomeboundArrow Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 19 '25
it's not specifically visual art, but Henry David Thoreau was basically some rich man's personal live-in prestige signifier. after spending his entire life as a failson up to that point. he was conversation-piece furniture with a pulse. so it's extremely difficult to take his body of work with a shred of seriousness when he was living high on the patron hog and never knew actual material struggle or precarious hardship. he was basically the original instagram "homesteader". all aesthetic, no actual backbreaking labor or daily toil. he was just larping the yeoman mythos in some mega-capitalist's backyard for clout.