History and methodological basis of contemporary art criticism

Art criticism and art history journalism have gone from theoretical treatises to axiological judgments in the XVIII–XIX centuries and to an interpretive approach in the XX–XXI centuries. At the present stage, the theory of art tends to the sphere of philosophy, aesthetics, cultural anthropology, sociology, new art criticism replaces the theory of art; the author’s character of interpretation reflects the trend from the universal to the individual. The dynamics of updating the methodology of judgment becomes an additional factor in the development of form; critic’s statement positions as journalism and analytics, which leads to the formation of a complex structure of evaluative and interpretative sense. The territory of the presentation of an art object transforms the principle of interpretation and affects the format of the art history text. Valueoriented criticism gives way to the author’s approach and interpretation due to the transformation of the structure of cultural institutions, the rejection of normativity, the change in species and genre stratification, the transformation of the principles of representation of works of art and ways of publishing visual materials. The author’s character of the text, the rejection of an integral system of criteria and a certain subjectivity give rise to essays. Changing forms of publications, latest information technologies and media have formed an electronic type of publications: «museum criticism» is developing, magazines, collections, periodicals, reviews and reviews appear in electronic media. Exhibition activity and gallery practice retain the format of catalogs and booklets, scientific work – collections of articles, periodicals and monographs. The methodology of modern art criticism predetermines by its place in the structure of social institutions of culture, the type of publication and audience, peculiarities of solving publishing and editorial problems.