Why do Artists Write on Art?

Once, there were newspaper reviews. They connected art writing to the artist and to an audience, with immediacy.

- N. Pushpamala

I regret that they disappeared after liberalisation

It seems they took up the space that could be used profitably for ads

We complained then that the art critics

Who were usually dance and music critics

Or from literature

Didn’t know our mediums and made horrible mistakes

Even then you could make mistakes about art, but not about classical dance or music because people know about it, and were trained in it

But artists also write reviews

Artists have always written on art, we write from the ‘inside’

We write from knowledge of art practice, the battles with materiality

Artists write manifestos, petitions

Artists write pedagogical tracts Artists are teachers, art historians, poets and playwrights

We write catalogue essays

We write essays, we do interviews, we give artist talks and seminar papers

We argue and discuss and organise and protest

We write because we want to intervene in the discourse