批评,历来被看作是一个神圣的字眼,它暗添了一种权力和资格,同时它还含有职责的意义。正因为此,法国作家左拉不无揶揄地将艺术批评家比作“警察”。但是,现在中国的“艺术警察”越来越难做,其原因大致有三:一是在所谓的后现代社会,价值评判标准和批评准则日趋灵活,在当下更加务实的人们眼中唯一的或统一的判断标准似乎显得不合时宜,因此,这给美术批评家的“执勤”带来很多的麻烦;二是中国本土的美术批评理论发展滞后,从西方引进的批评理论又有诸多不尽人意之外,由是造成美术批评家体系或语汇不力的局面;三是部分批评家敌不住某些小利(鲜有大利者)诱惑,或碍于亲情故旧,遂有“执法不严”的现象一再发生。以致使不少人喟叹当下批评中存在的问题确实有其可理解的一面。中国当代美术批评存在什么问题,理论建设方面需要作何努力,如何发展中国特色的美术批评理论,是大家共同关心的话题。本栏目对上述问题作了一些讨论,希望能够引起读者更加深入的思考。 Criticism has traditionally been viewed as a sacred word that implicitly adds a power and qualifications, while it also contains the meaning of duty. It is for this reason that the French writer Zola has portrayed art critics as “policemen” without hesitation. However, the reason why the “art police” in China is getting harder and harder now is that there are basically three reasons. First, in the so-called post-modern society, standards of value judgments and criticisms are increasingly flexible and unique or unified in the eyes of more pragmatic people Therefore, this has brought a lot of troubles to the art critic’s “duty on duty”. Second, the art criticism theory of China’s indigenous art lags behind. There are many unsatisfactory criticisms introduced from the West, Is the result of the art critic’s system or poor vocabulary. Third, some critics can not resist the temptation of some small profits (or the rarely-owned Italians), or because of their old age of relatives, there has been repeated “unscrupulous law enforcement.” As a result, many people now lament the fact that the problems existing in the current criticisms do have their understandable aspects. What are the problems in contemporary Chinese art criticism? How hard work needs to be done in theoretical construction? How to develop art criticism theory with Chinese characteristics? It is a topic of common concern to all. This section made some discussions on the above issues, hoping to arouse readers to think more deeply.