Writing in, on and through art. From art criticism to creative writing - 2020

Are you an artist integrating writing into your practice? An art critic, art historian or journalist writing about art? A curator or gallerist articulating the intricacies of an artist’s practice? You would like to try writing professionally? Or you're an art enthusiast keen to experiment with writing? This course creates a space where you can concentrate exclusively on writing, with support and guidance from experts with more than twenty years of art world experience.

After a sound introduction into writing about art, the focus will be on the practice of writing and editing. We will examine different forms of art writing, from the Renaissance up to the present day, and discuss different approaches. We examine how form, style, voice and narrative can be used to different effect, and experiment with what we have learned. You choose the direction you wish to take. The course will give you basic tools and precepts to develop your own style of writing.

Taking into account the restrictions that the current COVID-19 crisis presents for some people, there are two ways you can participate: Either you are able to travel to Salzburg or you can join the class remotely. We see this combination as an opportunity for experimentation: seeing with someone else’s eyes; being present while we are afar. Students in Salzburg will be paired with those in remote locations, as well as with artists, and together we will delve into the complexities of art writing.

Information

Venue: Hohensalzburg Fortress / online (hybrid)
Date: 10. – 15. 8. 20
What to bring: Something with which to write – a laptop or pen and paper.
Teaching language: English/German

Louisa Elderton

Louisa Elderton is a British art critic, writer, and editor based in Berlin. She is the Managing Editor of ICI Berlin Press, an independent, non-profit publisher that promotes radical lines of questioning, diverse voices, and novel approaches to academic scholarship, and was also recently the Text and Editorial Lead for Bergen Assembly 2025. Her writing has been featured in numerous publications including Artforum, Art Monthly, Artnet News, Art Review, Frieze, Flash Art, Harper’s Bazaar, Mousse, The New York Times, Vogue, and many more, as well as in gallery and museum catalogues and artist monographs. With significant experience of working for cultural institutions and galleries, she was Chief Editor of Side Magazine for Bergen Assembly 2022, Curatorial Editor at Gropius Bau from 2019–2022, and the Managing Editor of various publications for KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Hatje Cantz. From 2016–2019 she was Project Editor of Phaidon’s acclaimed ‘Vitamin’ series and Content Editor of Great Women Artists, and from 2011–16 she was a Curator & Artist Liaison at Blain|Southern. She has a Master’s degree in ‘Curating the Art Museum’ from The Courtauld Institute of Art, and specialised in learning and interpretation, as part of which she worked in the Research department at Tate.

Website

http://www.louisaelderton.com

Publications

Selected Magazines and Newspapers
“Thea Djordjadze: Become Like a Resonance Chamber” in: Plus Magazine, Issue 9, 2025.
“Is Smell the Next Big Thing?” in: Artnet News, 28 December 2025.
“Yayoi Kusama Is Still One of Our Most Important Artists” in: Frieze, 30 October 2025.
“How Ukrainian Artists Are Grappling with the War” in Artsy, 4 March 2025.
“Mortal Machines: Mire Lee” in: Flash Art, Issue 343, Fall, 2024.
“An Electric Temple of Culture Fires Up“ in: The New York Times, 11 September 2019.

Selected Book Chapters
An Endless Play of Surfaces: The Paintings of Erik Schmidt (essay for exhibition catalogue by KINDL, Berlin, 2025).
Vitamin V: Video and Moving Image in Contemporary Art (Phaidon, 2025).
Vitamin Txt: Words in Contemporary Art (Phaidon, 2024).
Vitamin C+: Collage in Contemporary Art (Phaidon, 2023).
Prime: Art’s Next Generation (Phaidon, 2022).
Birds: Exploring the Winged World (Phaidon, 2021).

Selected Editorial Work
Editor of Bergen Assembly 2025 Reader: across, with, nearby (Bergen Assembly 2025).
Copyeditor of Against Morality by Rosanna McLaughlin (Floating Opera Press, 2025).
Copyeditor of Imperfect Solidarities by Aruna D'Souza (Floating Opera Press, 2024).
Chief Editor of Side Magazine: Yasmine and the Seven Faces of the Heptahedron (Bergen Assembly/Wirklichkeit Books, 2022).
Managing Editor of Dayanita Singh: Dancing with my Camera (Gropius Bau/Hatje Cantz, 2022).
Managing Editor of Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective (Gropius Bau/Prestel, 2021).
Project Editor of Vitamin D3: New Perspectives in Painting (Phaidon, 2021).
Content Editor of Great Women Artists (Phaidon, 2019).

Photo: Claudia Peppel

Klaus Speidel

Klaus Speidel (PhD in philosophy) is an award-winning German art critic, curator and theorist. He writes for various print media, including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Spike and The Art Newspaper. He is co-founder of Verein K and facilitates Crit Cross. A Forum on Art Criticism. He currently teaches art history, art and curation in Vienna and image theory in Paris.

Publications

Magazines & newspapers
“The Sorrows of Young Andy. Andy Warhol Exhibits. A Glittering Alternative. mumok Wien”, in: Spike Art Quarterly #66, Winter 2020/2021
"Steirischer Herbst Graz aka Paranoia TV: Altes Broadcasting", in: artmagazine.cc, 20.10.20.
"Sie wollen uns erzählen", in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 17 April 2019.

Journal Articles
“‘Telling in Time’ Extended: How Single Pictures Convey Stories, Evoking Suspense, Curiosity, Surprise and Relief”, in: Poetics Today, Vol. 41, 2020 (i.E.) (EN).
“Pictorial Narrative with Tension and Relief”, in: Storyworlds. A Journal of Narrative Studies, 10.1.2, 2020.

Book Contributions
"Stabile Bilder der fragilen Schöpfung: Von Bildern der Natur zur Natur als Bild / Stable images of fragile creation. From pictures of nature to nature as a picture", in: Fragile Schöpfung, Johanna Schwanberg (Hg.), Dom Museum Vienna, 2020.
"Witz, Würdigung und Remix. Rückbezug als Innovation in der zeitgenössischen Zeichnung und Fotografie", in: Comeback. Kunsthistorische Renaissancen, Nicole Fritz (ed.), Kunsthalle Tübingen, 2019.
Bosch & Pitié. Agathe Pitié. Visionen des Jüngsten Gerichts / Visions of Last Judgement, Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna, 2019.