Scholarly art criticism is written for a more specialized art audience and appears in art journals, such as Art in America, Art Papers, and Art News, as well as presentations at professional conferences or seminars. Scholar-critics may be college and university professors or museum curators, often with particular knowledge about a style, period, medium, or artist. Through art criticism activities in the classroom, students interpret and judge individual works of art. Interpretation is the most critical task of art criticism, but we recommend no prescribed order to follow. The work of art itself should guide the approach to inquiry.
Interpretations are persuasive arguments.
Some interpretations are better than others. Good interpretations of art tell more about the artwork than they tell about the critic. Feelings are guides to interpretations. There can be different, competing, and contradictory interpretations of the same artwork. Interpretations are often based on a world view.