I have some thoughts on this, and I'm gonna make one of those Twritter-thread things: 1/9 https://twitter.com/Sketchy_raptor/status/1306209972334858246

In general I don't think you should give artists unsolicited critiques. However, I do think we need to be able to robustly criticise work in some contexts - and we need to figure out when that is appropriate. 2/9

If, in the olden days, you were in someones house and happened to see some art they had done, I don't think most people would spontaneously critique it. It would be rude to do so! 3/9

On the other hand, if you went to a high-profile exhibition, and it was your job to write about it, a critique, even a very harsh one, is expected. 4/9

It's a spectrum of presentation from "I did not hide this" to "behold ye mighty and despair". One should invite no criticism, the other might reasonably expect a good deal of it. 5/9

It would be nice to find a simple way to gauge this online, but it's difficult to cover most cases. 6/9

Funded/commissioned palaeoart with scientific institutional involvement should expect the level of criticism you might get for an academic paper. Art in publications, funded or not, should also be fair game. 7/9

... but, personal Twitter accounts with art presented in Tweets? Ehhh, I think it's best to hold-off unless you know the person pretty well. 8/9

Maybe a system of hashtags or groups where certain standards and criticism is expected could work. I think we need something to keep the accuracy up, without it we're doing fantasy art, not palaeoart. 9/9