When Christopher Knight retired as the art critic at the Los Angeles Times at the end of 2025, he was the last of, arguably, the three most influential US critics of the postmodern (i.e., post-1975) era to depart their roles. Roberta Smith retired as co-chief critic at The New York Times in 2024, and Peter Schjeldahl, who went from art critic at The Village Voice to The New Yorker, passed away in late 2022.  The trio were not only the most influential, but also the most gainfully employed—two factors that have everything to do with each other. I remember hearing Roberta Smith, speaking on a 2008 panel at Frieze when the fair was just a London event, estimate there were about 30 positions in the United States where people critiqued art full time, for one platform. I was a year into writing criticism in Los Angeles then, and I recall thinking that, while the statistic was grim, there was still a chance I’d get such a job.  Related Articles Then the number kept dwindling. Deborah …