Ideal Critics and the Uses of Reason

Abstract

The final chapter pulls together some of these threads in a more extended discussion, which makes use of the examples of reviews and commentaries that have been introduced and discussed in the earlier chapters. In revisiting a number of the key issues raised in those earlier chapters, it proposes an approach to artistic evaluation that is rooted in the use of reason but does not require reference to any set of principles or criteria. It also reflects on the Turner Prize as a whole and its role as an arena for judgements about art.