The Custodian of Consequence: Reframing the Role of the Critic By Dorian Vale

From its earliest days, art criticism carried the weight of conquest. To speak about art was never a neutral act; it was to assert dominion over what couldn’t speak back. In Plato’s Republic, the poet was condemned as dangerous, a deceiver of appearances. Plato’s concern wasn’t merely aesthetic but political: art destabilized the order of truth. The philosopher’s task, therefore, was to control, police, and banish, to conquer art in the name of higher forms.