Afterall Journal Issue 14 Foreword: On Criticism and the Schlegels

Pablo Lafuente's foreword to Afterall Journal Issue 14, published November 26, 2006, draws on the Schlegel brothers' Athenäum journal (first issue May 1798) to argue for a criticality that judges artworks by their own internal rules rather than external standards. The issue features five artists and collectives: Julie Mehretu (painting and historical-political reflection), Bernadette Corporation (blurring authorship and formalities), Andrea Bowers (craftsmanship applied to feminist activism), Ivan Grubanov (craftsmanship applied to Balkan war), and Ibon Aranberri (reactivating locations and symbols to rethink narratives). Lane Relyea's essay 'Your Art World: Or, The Limits of Connectivity' examines flexible strategies in the current political and market situation. Mark Lewis's contribution to the documenta 12 magazines project, 'Is Modernity Our Antiquity?', warns against forgetting the future. Lafuente concludes that criticism, both internal and external, is integral to a progressive, universal poetry that continuously questions itself.