Contributor(s): Adrian Searle | At a time when criticism fragments into a mosaic of the theoretical and the anaemic, into promotion, obscurantism and flim-flam, the extinction of the broadsheet critic looms ever closer. Yet there has never been more writing about art, and more of a readership for it. Nor has art ever had such a large audience. As mega-galleries rise, and auctions and art fairs parade a vulgar carnival of wealth and consumption, Searle asks who needs critics, who listens, why look, and why write and read. Adrian Searle (@SearleAdrian) has been writing art criticism for over 35 years, and has been art critic for The Guardian since 1996. In 2010 he edited The Writings of Juan Muñoz, and recently contributed to By and On Luc Tuymans, for the Whitechapel and MIT press. He has curated numerous exhibitions, including the first retrospective of Brazilian sculptor Lucia Nogueira, for the Serralves Museum in Portugal in 2007, and Julião Sarmento: Close Distance, at the Casa Encendida in Madrid in 2011. He has taught at many British and European art colleges and was until recently a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art. He also likes to dance. This event forms part of LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2014, taking place from Monday 24 February - Saturday 1 March 2014, with the theme 'Reflections'.