How do you descrive a work of art using words? As of yesterday, you would have listed the technique, the historical style that you think is closest to that work of art or the group or art movement to which the author would belong. You would also have named well known artists of the past that you connect to the artwork. Then the curator - the critic, the journalist, the man of words - would have talked of the meaning of that artwork and of its formal and/or conceptual content.
This last part didn't change so much, in fact. The talking is less ornate and virtuosic than in the past, but those texts are still there as a significant part of the marketing in the art market (actually, they are almost advertisements).
On the contrary, the pratical and descriptive part of the verbal communication about an artwork deeply changed. The words that one needs to know today, if he wants to know something about an artwork, are about the social life of that artwork. It means events, happenings and projects in which that artwork is involved and shown to people. And then there is the artist and his personal story: you have to know it to trust him and believe in his honesty (and the author's honesty is absolutely requested, at least about his work of art).
Techniques, styles, contents are in a second line. They constitute a language, and every language has the same value and dignity.
Here's the thing. (To be continued) (Forgive my bad english)