Via Art Cyclopedia
He's knowledgable, sensible, passionate, lucid, unpretentious. But the simplest reason Time Magazine's Robert Hughes is possibly the best art critic writing today is that he's always interesting. Even when you disagree with him, it's impossible not to enjoy doing so.
You have to be an intellectual to believe such nonsense. No ordinary man could be such a fool. George Orwell was talking politics when he coined this aphorism -- one of The Best Things Anybody Ever Said -- but he might just as well have been referring to the art world in the 20th century and beyond. In such an age, Robert Hughes is a refreshingly sane voice.
Hughes was born in Sydney, Australia in 1938. He studied arts and architecture at Sydney University, during which time he made a name for himself within the Sydney "Push" -- a progressive group of artists, writers, intellectuals and drinkers. Among the group were two other blazingly witty and incisive cultural observers: Germaine Greer and Clive James. Incredibly, Hughes was commissioned to write a history of Australian painting while an undergraduate and dropped out of university.
He left Australia for Britain in the early 1960's, writing for such publications as the Spectator, the Telegraph, the Times and the Observer, before landing the position of art critic for Time Magazine in 1970.
Important books he has written include The Shock of the New (1981), The Fatal Shore (1987), Culture of Complaint (1993) and American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America (1997).
Hughes had established an unassailable position as the world's most famous and most influential art critic, when things recently started to go wrong for him. He had a nervous breakdown in 1997. While in Australia in 1999 to film the documentary Beyond the Fatal Shore, he was in a head-on collision and nearly died. He was accused of causing the accident (of which he has no recollection) and charged with dangerous driving. Then when the show ultimately aired, Hughes was accused of showing a negative and outdated view of Australia.
Bad went to worse when he was acquitted of the dangerous driving charge, and afterwards launched a personal attack against the public prosecutors for bringing the case against him. They obtained a retrial and filed defamation lawsuits against Hughes, the result being that the writer could be jailed and also be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. I haven't found recent news of this case, but it appears that Hughes intends to remain in exile in the US rather than return for the second trial.
The worst imaginable news hit Robert Hughes in April, 2001: his thirty-three-year-old son Danton, a sculptor, committed suicide in Australia.
Amazingly, Hughes has continued to write for Time Magazine, although less frequently than before the accident. Just recently he has reappeared, however, publishing in the December 17th and 24th issues of Time. Here's hoping that 2002 will be good to him and that he'll continue to share his insights with us for a long time to come.
He's knowledgable, sensible, passionate, lucid, unpretentious. But the simplest reason Time Magazine's Robert Hughes is possibly the best art critic writing today is that he's always interesting. Even when you disagree with him, it's impossible not to enjoy doing so.
You have to be an intellectual to believe such nonsense. No ordinary man could be such a fool. George Orwell was talking politics when he coined this aphorism -- one of The Best Things Anybody Ever Said -- but he might just as well have been referring to the art world in the 20th century and beyond. In such an age, Robert Hughes is a refreshingly sane voice.
Hughes was born in Sydney, Australia in 1938. He studied arts and architecture at Sydney University, during which time he made a name for himself within the Sydney "Push" -- a progressive group of artists, writers, intellectuals and drinkers. Among the group were two other blazingly witty and incisive cultural observers: Germaine Greer and Clive James. Incredibly, Hughes was commissioned to write a history of Australian painting while an undergraduate and dropped out of university.
He left Australia for Britain in the early 1960's, writing for such publications as the Spectator, the Telegraph, the Times and the Observer, before landing the position of art critic for Time Magazine in 1970.
Important books he has written include The Shock of the New (1981), The Fatal Shore (1987), Culture of Complaint (1993) and American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America (1997).
Hughes had established an unassailable position as the world's most famous and most influential art critic, when things recently started to go wrong for him. He had a nervous breakdown in 1997. While in Australia in 1999 to film the documentary Beyond the Fatal Shore, he was in a head-on collision and nearly died. He was accused of causing the accident (of which he has no recollection) and charged with dangerous driving. Then when the show ultimately aired, Hughes was accused of showing a negative and outdated view of Australia.
Bad went to worse when he was acquitted of the dangerous driving charge, and afterwards launched a personal attack against the public prosecutors for bringing the case against him. They obtained a retrial and filed defamation lawsuits against Hughes, the result being that the writer could be jailed and also be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. I haven't found recent news of this case, but it appears that Hughes intends to remain in exile in the US rather than return for the second trial.
The worst imaginable news hit Robert Hughes in April, 2001: his thirty-three-year-old son Danton, a sculptor, committed suicide in Australia.
Amazingly, Hughes has continued to write for Time Magazine, although less frequently than before the accident. Just recently he has reappeared, however, publishing in the December 17th and 24th issues of Time. Here's hoping that 2002 will be good to him and that he'll continue to share his insights with us for a long time to come.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου