The great Jed Perl with an important insight:
Much if not most of what is today thought of as criticism is just nonfiction writing with a distinctive personal voice, attitudes and opinions without any underlying idea. My impression is that among younger nonfiction writers the central focus is on developing that distinctive voice, with less focus on what’s actually said. Janet Malcolm and Dave Hickey, whose work apprentice writers in BA and MFA programs are likely to encounter, are striking essayists who leave you in no doubt as to who they are and what interests them, but neither of them has what I would call an aesthetic position. Malcolm produced a kind of personal reportage, with readers invited and expected to be alert to the sharp edges of her personality. As for Hickey, although his writings about the return of beauty have made him something of a hero in the art world, I think what people really respond to in his writing isn’t what he thought about art but the battle-tested hipster personality that he cultivated in all his work, whether relating with wonderful panache stories of his childhood and his jazz musician father or the years he spent as an art dealer or his hours hanging out with artists and art students. Talking about art or writing about your experiences in the arts isn’t the same as being a critic of the arts.