Art Critic Robert Hughes

[Keith2]

Here's an obituary for Robert Hughes, the Australian art critic, who wrote for Time magazine from 1970 to the end of the century.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012.../robert-hughes

His best articles for Time are available in his book "Nothing If Not Critical". It's worth reading for his insight and his scathing views on some aspects of art.

He reached a wider audience in 1980 with a BBC series on modern art from the late 19th century onwards, called " The Shock Of The New" . Although there's no DVD, an updated version of the book accompanying the series is still available.

His most recent book (2011) was "Rome", a history of the city and its relation with Italian art. The historian Mary Beard panned it for historical inaccuracies, but I still thought it was a good read.

[LGHumphrey]

Twenty years ago he wrote a really excellent history of Barcelona, a city which he loved very much.

What an amazing art critic, completely devoid of the bs that permeates the work of other critics.

[LGHumphrey]

It surprises me that Robert Hughes thought that Hirst, Bacon, Koons, and other creators of "modern art" were producing crap yet liked the work of Frank Auerbach, which for some of us is as crappy as the others.

Just a question of personal taste, perhaps, but......is there another explanation for Hughes's approval of Auerbach?

Could it be that Hughes didn't want to offend Auerbach's friend Lucian Freud? (Just an idea off the top of my head.)

[Keith2]

I noticed in the obituary in the Times that Robert Hughes wrote a book on Frank Auerbach in 1980, so I imagine he had a genuine interest in the artist's work.

Auerbach's paintings are heavy and sombre because they are larded with with thick layers of oil paint. But they are intriguing to look at and are more lively than Hirst's and Koons' work.

[o.d. jones]

Hughes also thought highly of Bacon, Kitaj, and Howard Hodgkin, and sculptors such as Puryear. He certainly was not an anti-modernist, closer to an anti-postmodernist, along the lines of Donald Kuspit regarding the likes of Koons, Hirst, et al. He also had the courage of his convictions, which whether you agreed with his conclusions or not, makes his passing all the more somber.

[LGHumphrey]

Hughes's 8 part video "Shock of the New" is available here:

http://www.ubu.com/film/hughes.html

[Keith2]

Thanks for giving me the link to Shock of the New, I didn't know it was available.