Critique/Kritik
By Rita Roos Published by Veenman Publishers.
Edited by Nina Roos, Anders Kreuger. Text by Rita Roos. Critic and theorist Rita Roos (1956-1996) grew up a member of Finland's indigenous Swedish-speaking minority, a population of 350,000 with a strong writing culture. When she died in her fortieth year, she left behind the essays and interviews collected here, edited on the tenth anniversary of her passing by Anders Kruger and by her twin sister, the painter Nina Roos. Rita Roos's work for Helsinki's Hufvudstadtbladet newspaper and for Siksi: the Nordic Art Review, for which she was the Finnish editor, document a lively local art scene and also range over the international art world to include coverage of work by Gerhard Richter, Anish Kapoor, Rosemarie Trockel, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, and Damien Hirst. This volume is published not only as a tribute to a vibrant, committed art writer, but, as the editors write, as "an example of what journalism can be. In that sense this book can be understood as obliquely polemical in relation to the current debate about the function and quality of criticism." Roos herself asks in an interview here, "What can art say that science cannot?" and answers that question, along with many more.
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