Kinds of expert evaluation in anglophone art discourse on works by Irina Nakhova

The paper aims to study kinds of expert evaluation and its representation in anglophone art discourse concerning the oeuvre of the artist Irina Nakhova. Based on the cognitive discourse analysis of the catalogue ‘Irina Nakhova. Museum on the Edge', prepared by Jane Sharp and Julia Tulovsky for the artist's exhibition at the Zimmerli Art Museum, the author of the paper has studied the subject, object and kinds of evaluation formulated for the foreign viewer. The study revealed that the subject of evaluation is characterized by complexity and includes, firstly, the authors of the publication, being experts in the field of art criticism, secondly, the artist herself, whose opinion is represented through direct and indirect quotation, and thirdly, the viewer, whose understanding is conveyed through the prism of the authors' idea of it. Depending on the subject of evaluation, there can be distinguished internal and external, direct and indirect kinds of evaluation. The internal evaluation belongs to the artist, while the external one - to the authors of the publication and recipients. These kinds of evaluation are associated with the processes of generation and perception of a work of art. The direct evaluation belongs to the authors of the text, whereas the indirect one is reported by them, but belongs to the artist and the recipient. Based on the analysis, the complexity of the object of evaluation is revealed: it includes the artistic conception, the content and form of the works, their aesthetic impact on the recipient. It is established that the conception is given a positive rational evaluation by experts and a neutral rational evaluation by I. Nakhova herself. A positive rational evaluation of the content and form of works can be combined with a negative rational evaluation of the depicted object and a negative emotional evaluation of the aesthetic impact of some works on the recipient. To justify the evaluation of I. Nakhova's oeuvre, there are used arguments based on facts, references to the authoritative persons and the recipient, comparison with other artists. The paper concludes that the evaluation of I. Nakhova's works in anglophone art discourse is polyphonic, polychromic, well-reasoned.