Why are there so many toxic people in the art world, and how do I protect myself — professionally and emotionally — from them? Goodman, NYEvery industry has toxic people, but desperation gives the art-world toxicity its particular flavor. When I worked as an art critic, people often asked me to write pieces exposing the bad behavior of professionals they didn’t like. Often the targets deserved a takedown, but the requests never sat well with me (and usually weren’t stories, just gripes). Running down the list of terrible things I’ve seen people do, I wondered whether toxicity was just cluelessness.