Art has reflected society since its beginning on cave walls depicting stories and histories. Through intellectual and industrial revolutions, new techniques developed, exposing new styles and modes of expression through artistic means. As we enter an era of new technology and a higher acceptance of diversity, art takes a turn toward the contemporary ward as well. What has society been left with? Gadgets and trinkets accompanied by War and Peace-length instruction manuals and two basketballs floating in a tank of water lay scattered amid a varied culture. While some have adeptly followed the unique turns of modern art, some are left staring at random objects with no apparent meaning.
Comprehensive Art Critic Magazine is coming prepared to teach you how to approach these emerging, complicated art styles. You will explore the meaning behind prominent artists and movements of the day through reviews, critiques, and analyses. As our contributing authors take you behind the exhibitions and galleries, you will develop an understanding of complex works and the theory behind them. As you visit museums of contemporary art across the country, your cultured friends will encompass you with awe at your newly developed comprehension and insight into the multifaceted contemporary art world.
Comprehensive Art Critic Magazine will introduce you to the terms commonly used to discuss modern artwork, as well as provide a background of modern art styles and their development. Each page will bring you closer to understanding modern art in the United States. This quarterly magazine will provide an installment every season to keep you up-to-date with recent events, closings, and openings. It will advertise present and future exhibitions with reviews and expectations to guide you as you start your own anthology of gallery visits. As a beginner in the world of understanding modern art, you will be guided by our hand-picked, seasoned professionals.
The magazine is funded by art institutions and their sponsors as well as by independent sponsors who care about our purpose. Our goal at Comprehensive Art Critic Magazine is to make modern art available to all, whether it’s to analyze meaning or to analyze the artistic components in an artwork. We want to show art as a reflection of the current society and its progression and we want to involve you in that society. We want to build appreciation for these sometimes little-understood arts so that the art world can continue to prosper. We offer you memberships to our magazine and to our community. By joining, you will have the option to sign up for more frequent updates on the art world so you will not have to wait for a new issue to provide you with the current information as soon as possible.
The first issue, coming soon this winter season will feature reviews of Willam Kentride, Vincent Fecteau, and Jenny Holtzer by renowned art critics that got their start at Northwestern University. It will provide information on exhibits and galleries in big cities like Chicago, New York, and LA as well as in smaller towns across the US. The issue will feature specific works and how they can be interpreted and in terms that are clearly defined. After this issue, you will begin to develop an understanding of the contemporary art world and you will begin to feel confident in your abilities as part of a new and welcoming art society.
We look forward to seeing you become a part of our contemporary art community!
Ksjusha Povod
Editor-in-chief
Critical Colloquia 
Hey Ksjusha,
To connect the idea of technology and contemporary art (from the first paragraph), would it be correct to say that The Comprehensive Art Critic Magazine is a type of “instruction manual” for contemporary art serving the same purpose as a manual that would come with your new digital camera? If so, is it really possible to create a general set of instructions or definitions that would be applicable to the infinite variety of works that are created these days?
Also, would you say that this is the generation that depends on instruction manuals, or is it just that, like technology, art has become somewhat unattainable for the people who don’t have some type of background knowledge?
Megan
By: mjlee24 on November 25, 2008
at 8:26 pm
Hey Ksjusha
After reading your letter to the editor, I feel like you have put together an instruction manual of how to view modern art. “Comprehensive Art Critic Magazine will introduce you to the terms commonly used to discuss modern artwork, as well as provide a background of modern art styles and their development.” Do you plan on structuring it like a text book of sorts that will explain and teach modern art to an audience that has little to no knowledge of the subject? The title itself “Comprehensive Art Critic Magazine” almost makes it sound like you have created a magazine geared toward the art savvy or those who already know how to act as an art critic. Do you think a more relaxed title would make the magazine more approachable? Or would it help let your intended audience know that it is in fact for those who know little about art?
-Katie
By: Katie on November 25, 2008
at 11:37 pm
Ksjusha-
I very much like the idea and your intention with this magazine proposal. I do believe modern art tends to be overlooked by those who have not been previously exposed to the style. However, I found myself wondering what would set your magazine apart from a textbook introduction to modern art.
You seem to present a very mathematical way of instructing those non-versed readers in this category by presenting terms and styles. This may present difficulties seeing as modern art in itself can be extremely abstract and perhaps intangible to an audience relying on an instruction manual or explanation.
Furthermore, your goal to “make modern art available to all” is, like I previously expressed, a very admirable one yet I question how this can be achieved with your plans of funding. Through the backing of art institutions, it seems as if the publication may be mostly accessible to those already interested in the arts and who are involved in the funding museums. I wonder if you have additional plans of distribution to assure your publication reaches those it is aimed towards…
Rachel
By: rachzuke on November 26, 2008
at 2:51 am
This is a really great way to help people go throught step by step and understand how to analyze modern art, but don’t you think that by instructing your audience how to view the painting you are pigeon-holing them to think about art in just one particular way? As we have all seen in class there are a lot of different types of review and a lot of different ways to view a particular piece of modern art. What style of review will you choose? how come? and if you want to avoid this (something you by no means should necessarily do) how will you teach the audience to read painting in different ways?
Overall I think this is a great way to educate the public about modern art and make it more accessible to everyday people.
Brit
By: brithvide on November 26, 2008
at 11:46 am