Professional has lost most of the space it once occupied in newspapers.
The that reviewed one exhibition a week has been replaced by a listing.
Artists themselves reach an audience directly and no longer need an to be seen.
That shift is genuinely democratic and it removed something that was doing a job.
A critic wrote for a reader who had not seen the work and might never see it.
That reader needed description before judgement, and description is the part that has disappeared.
Social platforms reward a , because a travels and a description does not.
The economics also changed who can write.
A review now pays less than it did in nineteen-ninety, in money that is worth less.
Most working critics therefore hold a teaching post or a gallery role, and both create .
has become more important than independence, since independence is rarely available.
A reader can weigh a judgement made by somebody who teaches the artist, if they are told.
Some of the strongest current writing appears in artist-run and small journals.
They reach few people and are read closely, which is the older model at a smaller scale.
Whether that is a decline or a return depends on which decade is chosen as the standard.