The Manhattan Art Journal Vol. 1, Issue 1
Edited by Sean Tatol
Published by The Manhattan Art Review
New York, 2023

In July 2023, the New York-based art critic Sean Tatol (a self-professed “insufferable crank”) wrote an essay in The Point journal titled “Negative Criticism” in which he argued that art criticism has, of late, become too affirmative, too cloying, too propagandist (critics supporting artist friends and curators; critics in thrall to identity politics and social justice ideology), and that, in essence, “the mere suggestion that some things are better than others, particularly in the arts, is met with confusion and hostility.” Tatol went on to suggest that, “The arts have been demoted to the level of ‘media,’ recreational content intended for unreflective consumption.”