Majority of Artists Only Read Reviews of Their Own Work, Survey Finds

“Hell, if I don’t read them, who will?”

This is not the musing of a writer contemplating their forthcoming zine series, nor a poet gesturing toward a closet full of copies of their first collection. It’s a line from a recent nationwide survey of over 20,000 artists, which found that the vast majority only read reviews of their own work.

With publications dropping like flies or succumbing to billionaire-run media conglomerates, the anonymous survey set out to identify how — and if — artists consume art criticism today. Released on Substack today, April 1, the findings indicate that 73% of the respondents find “little to no value” in reading reviews of other artists’ work.

“I set up a Google Alert for my name, and that’s pretty much my daily routine in a nutshell,” wrote a Malibu-based artist. “Why would I read anything else?”

“If I’m getting a negative review, I wanna be ahead of the curve,” responded an artist based in Bushwick. “I wanna know which writer to shit-talk!! Haha lol jk, I would never. Soo much respect for critics out there doing the work <3.”

But what, pray tell, defines a review in the first place? 52% of respondents skipped this question altogether, with another 25% expressing confusion about the difference between art criticism and press releases. The remaining few either acknowledged the importance of reviews without defining them, or shared some variation on one respondent’s sentiment: “Idk about all that, but it sucks that some writers only come to the openings for the free booze 🙄.”

Interestingly, 28% of respondents said that they will occasionally hate-read a negative review of an artist they vehemently dislike. Most of these artists self-identified either as “multi-hyphenate bespoke creators” or “landscape painters.”

“Ngl, nothing fuels my work ethic like seeing my nemesis get told their work is shitty,” said one participant based in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. “It just hits different. But obvi, I still like all their posts and comment ‘YAAAAS MAMA 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻’ to cover my bases, and that’s on networking! Never know who you’re gonna need to ask for a favor.”

Another simply uploaded a grainy screenshot of a classic meme to express their general indifference toward reviews of other artists’ work: “i ain’t reading all that — i’m happy for u tho, or sorry that happened.”