"Artists should pay little attention to their critics. Criticism tends to undermine and constrain the artist's creativity."

"Artists should pay little attention to their critics. Criticism tends to undermine and constrain the artist's creativity."

Artists should pay little attention to anything that undermines their creativity. At a time when the definition of art spans across live performances like theatre, stand-up comedy, music to the more removed forms such as paintings, novels and digital art, while it is safe to say that criticism constrains and in some cases distracts, it is hard to conclude that that constraint by itself undermines creativity.

Art specifically, more than other human endeavors, is defined predominantly by its creative aspect. By definition, great art demands creativity. And so it fair to assume that anything that undermines and additionally constrains it should be shunned by the artist.

Criticism without doubt constrains creativity. It has a tendency to make conformists out of artists with original ideas. This is more pronounced at a young age where criticism can make a phenomenal impact on psyche of the budding artist. Indeed, it could decide whether or not they go on to nurture a career in the arts at all. Criticism also takes away the attention of the artists from the creative ideas themselves and focusses it instead on how the ideas will be recieved by the critic.

Whether criticism undermines creativity however, is questionable. While Picasso, with his impressionist style may have appeared ugly to a critic used to realism, he may also have been equally encouraged by the criticsm. Artists are often inspired by the need for breaking free from the norm, and criticism often provides them validation that their work is certainly not the norm.

The situation is quite different in the performing arts. They depend more heavily on the active participation of the audience. Comedians, musicians, actors, all look to the audience for feedback. A negative reception from the audience could mean the desired effects of their rendition are not being achieved and that they may need to adopt a different approach instead. A standing ovation could provide strong validation of the performance. Thus a performing artist like a comedian thrives and indeed requires the feedback, be it positive or negative from the audience in order to be successful. The criticism constrains yes, but in a positive manner that could have a positive influence on the creativity of the artist, much less undermine it.

Criticism undoubtedly constrains, whether this is always negative is subject to question. Thus while artists should shun anything that undermines creativity, it is much less obvious that criticism by itself undermines creativity.