If All Art is Propaganda, Then What is Art Criticism?

While there has been argument over the matter of who said it first, and indeed the remark may be more strongly associated with figures other than himself, Upton Sinclair seems to have originated the remark that "all art is propaganda," and certainly enlarged upon and argued forcefully for the position in his study Mammonart.

Of course, if "all art is propaganda" one may ask what that means for all art criticism. The obvious answer would seem to be that art criticism is, at least in part and on at some level, propaganda criticism.

Thus if it is not just sanctimonious but foolish to assail art for being "propaganda," and folly to sniff about art having a "Message," it is also not just sanctimonious but foolish and folly to sniff about art critics being attentive to the propaganda--to the political content--of the works they examine. Rather one would do better to judge them for how well or how badly they do the job.

Going by what I see of those pros enjoying space on major platforms today, the current cohort tends to do the job about as well as the professional political commentators similarly enjoying space on the major platforms--which is to say very, very badly indeed.