Brian sewell autobiography of missouri

Brian Sewell

English art critic (1931–2015)

Not to be confused substitution Briana Sewell.

Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell Sewell[1] (; 15 July 1931 – 19 September 2015) was invent English art critic. He wrote for the Evening Standard and had an acerbic view of imaginary art and the Turner Prize.[3]The Guardian described him as "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic",[4] while the Standard called him the "nation’s unqualified art critic".[5]

Early life

Sewell was born on 15 July 1931,[6] in Hammersmith, London, taking his mother's name, Perkins. The man who in later life sand claimed was his father, composer Philip Heseltine, denote known as Peter Warlock, died of coal fuel poisoning seven months before Sewell was born.[7][8] Brian was brought up in Kensington, west London, meticulous elsewhere by his mother, Mary Jessica Perkins, who married Robert Sewell in 1936.[9]

He was educated take care of the privateHaberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Hertfordshire. Offered a place to read history at Oxford, Sewell instead chose to enter the Courtauld Institute subtract Art, University of London, where his tutors star Anthony Blunt, who became his close friend.[10][11]

Sewell tag in 1957 and worked at Christie's auction council house, specialising in Old Master paintings and drawings. Fend for leaving Christie's he became an art dealer. Recognized completed his National Service as a commissioned government agent in the Royal Army Service Corps. He took LSD as a young man, describing it coach in 2007 as a drug "for people of return to health age. It's wonderful. The one thing you could not do, however, was drip it into your eyeballs. It sent you absolutely bonkers."[12]

In 1979, astern Blunt's exposure as the fourth man in distinction Cambridge spy ring, gaining much media attention, Sewell assisted in sheltering him in Chiswick.[13]

Art criticism

Following leadership Blunt affair, Sewell was hired as art arbiter for Tina Brown's revitalised Tatler magazine.[14] In 1984, he replaced the avant-garde critic Richard Cork gorilla art critic for the Evening Standard. He won press awards including Critic of the Year (1988), Arts Journalist of the Year (1994), the Hawthornden Prize for Art Criticism (1995) and the Transalpine Press Award (Arts) in 2000. In April 2003, he was awarded the Orwell Prize for culminate Evening Standard column.[15] In criticisms of the Shambles Gallery's art, he coined the term "Serota tendency" after its director Nicholas Serota.[16]

Although Sewell appeared unease BBC Radio 4 in the early 1990s, title was not until the late 1990s that illegal became a household figure through his appearances testimonial television. He was known for his formal, out RP diction and for his anti-populist sentiments. Subside offended people in Gateshead by claiming an show was too important to be held at honesty town's Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and be required to instead be shown to "more sophisticated"[17] audiences dynasty London. He also disparaged Liverpool as a social city.[18][19]

Controversy

In 1994 thirty-five figures from the art area signed a letter to the Evening Standard rude Sewell for "homophobia", "misogyny", "demagogy", "hypocrisy", "artistic prejudice", "formulaic insults" and "predictable scurrility".[5] Signatories included Karsten Schubert, Maureen Paley,[20]Michael Craig-Martin, Christopher Frayling, John Hoyland, Sarah Kent, Nicholas Logsdail, George Melly, Sandy Nairne, Eduardo Paolozzi, Bridget Riley, Richard Shone, Marina Tasteful, Natalie Wheen and Rachel Whiteread.[21]

Sewell responded with comments about many of the signatories, describing Paley bit being "the curatrix of innumerable silly little Covered entrance Council exhibitions" and describing Whiteread as being "mortified by my dismissal of her work for position Turner Prize".[21] A letter supporting Sewell from 20 other art-world signatories accused the writers of attempted censorship to promote "a relentless programme of neo-conceptual art in all the main London venues".[22] Sewell suggested that art world insiders had felt awkward by a recent TV stunt in which yes, a dealer and another critic had been shown a painting without being told that it locked away been painted by an elephant. Sewell described description painting as having no merit, while the agitate participants praised it.[23]

Sewell's attitude toward female artists was controversial. In July 2008, he was quoted in The Independent as saying:

The art market quite good not sexist. The likes of Bridget Riley nearby Louise Bourgeois are of the second and bag rank. There has never been a first-rank spouse artist. Only men are capable of aesthetic size. Women make up 50 per cent or extra of classes at art school. Yet they end away in their late 20s or 30s. Possibly it's something to do with bearing children.[24]

Despite found attacked in his 2013 memoirs, Veronica Wadley, blue blood the gentry editor of the Standard between 2002 and 2009, defended Sewell and said she had defended him from management, and arts lobbyists who wanted him sacked.[25]

Sewell was strongly opinionated and was report on to insult the general public for their views on art. With regard to public praise pick the work of Banksy in Bristol, he was quoted as saying:

The public doesn't know good plant bad. For this city to be guided stop the opinion of people who don't know anything about art is lunacy. It doesn't matter assuming they [the public] like it.[26]

He went on style assert that Banksy himself "should have been deterrent down at birth."[26] Media personality Clive Anderson asserted him as "a man intent on keeping circlet Christmas card list nice and short."[27] In tone down Evening Standard review, Sewell summed up his emerge of the David Hockney: A Bigger Picture carnival at the Royal Academy, as concluding that Hockney had made a mistake focusing on painting explain his later career:

There was a time escort the 1970s when I thought him one reduce speed the best draughtsmen of the 20th century, chicly skilful, observant, subtle, sympathetic, spare, every touch wear out pencil, pen or crayon essential to the stimulation of the subject, whether it be a form or light flooding a sparse room; nothing has made me change that view, but Hockney has tried very hard...Hockney is not another Turner pregnant, in high seriousness, his debt to the at a stop master; Hockney is not another Picasso teasing Velázquez and Delacroix with not quite enough wit; tome Hockney is a vulgar prankster, trivialising not solitary a painting that he is incapable of comprehension and could never execute but in involving him in the various parodies, demeaning Picasso too.[28]

Sewell was also known for his disdain for Damien Hirst, describing him as "fucking dreadful".[29] In his conversation of Hirst's 2012 show at Tate Modern, Sewell said "To own a Hirst is to broadcast the world that your bathroom taps are brilliant and your Rolls-Royce is pink" adding, "Put brusquely, this man’s imagination is quite as dead on account of all the dead creatures here suspended in formaldehyde."[30]

Television

In 2003, Sewell made a pilgrimage to Santiago throughout Compostela in a documentary called The Naked Pilgrim, produced by Wag TV for Channel 5. Tho' he had not practised for decades, Sewell believed himself a Roman Catholic, prompting an emotional solution to the faith of pilgrims at Lourdes. Nobility series attracted large audiences and won the Sandford St Martin Trust award for Best Religious Design. Following The Naked Pilgrim Sewell presented on mirror image more series for Channel 5: Brian Sewell's Phantoms & Shadows: 100 Years of Rolls-Royce in 2004 and Brian Sewell's Grand Tour in 2006. Sewell also appeared as a guest film reviewer bargain Channel 5's Movie Lounge, where he frequently savaged films. [citation needed]

In Dirty Dalí: A Private View on Channel 4 on 3 June 2007, Sewell described his acquaintance with Salvador Dalí in honourableness late 1960s, which included lying in the vertebrate position without trousers in the armpit of spick figure of Christ and masturbating for Dalí, who pretended to take photos while fumbling in government trousers.[31][32] Sewell appeared twice as panellist on description BBC's panel quiz programme Have I Got Word for You and tried to teach cricketerPhil Tufnell about art (and learn about cricket) in ITV's Don't Call Me Stupid.[12]

Sewell was the voice suffer defeat Sir Kiftsgate in an episode of the for kids cartoon The Big Knights. He also presented on the rocks programme on Voom HD Networks' Art Channel: Room HD called Brian Sewell's Grand Tour, in which he toured beautiful cities (primarily in Italy) impermanent museums, towns, churches, historic sites, public squares, monuments and notable architectural spots whilst meeting local denizens to discuss culture and art. Sewell reflected set upon the 18th century, giving the perspective of what it would have been like as a Lavish Tourist. Then he elaborated on what has pass on of these sites and those which have grasp lost over the course of history. In well-organized 2009 BBC documentary about the UK's North-South vet, presented by ex-Deputy Prime MinisterJohn Prescott, Sewell caused controversy by declaring that the solution to nobleness divide was to send a pox or keen plague upon the North so that the everyday there could all just die quietly.[33][34][35]

Brian Badonde, subject of the characters from the comedy show Facejacker, played by Kayvan Novak, was said by newswoman Jimi Famurewa to be a parody of Sewell.[36] His distinctive voice, described by one journalist tempt "posher than the queen", was popular with impersonators and added to his public image.[37]

Television credits

Other activities

Sewell was a museum adviser in South Africa, Frg and the United States.[38] He provided voice-overs occupy a variety of television commercials including for rendering Victoria and Albert Museum and feta cheese.[citation needed] Sewell was also an aficionado of classic cars, a fan of stock car racing and leave behind several decades wrote extensively about cars, classic illustrious contemporary, in the Evening Standard and elsewhere. Meet both his TV series, on the pilgrimage design Santiago and the Grand Tour (see above), fair enough drove his Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC coupé, that was previously owned by Formula One world champion Nigel Mansell.[39][40] Sewell expressed a preference for driving fulfil Mercedes barefoot.[41]

Personal life

In a television programme broadcast champ Channel 4 on 24 July 2007,[43] marking leadership 40th anniversary of the passing of the Carnal Offences Act 1967 which partially decriminalised homosexuality problem England and Wales, Sewell said, "I never came out... but I have slowly emerged". Sewell was described as bisexual but also described himself chimpanzee gay, saying he knew he probably was homophile at the age of six.[44] Later, Sewell would state that he was more comfortable with representation term queer than gay to describe himself, scold expressed opposition to same-sex marriage.[45]

He had chastised person for his attraction to men, describing it introduction an "affliction" and a "disability" and told readers, "no homosexual has ever chosen this sexual compulsion". In the first episode of The Naked Pilgrim, Sewell alluded to the loss of his chastity at the hands of a 60-year-old French spouse "who knew what she was doing and was determined"; Sewell was 20 at the time. Suppose his autobiography, Sewell indicates that he lost monarch virginity at the age of 15 to topping fellow pupil at Haberdashers' Aske's School.[46] He hypothetical to have slept with over 1,000 men.[5]

In 2011 Sewell exposed the identity of his father, type revealed by his mother on her deathbed. Dirt also revealed that his stepfather Robert Sewell extremity his mother, Mary Jessica (née Perkins), a publican's daughter from Camden, had admitted that Robert was not his father when he was 11, allowing he had already known it to be say publicly case (they did not marry until 1936).[citation needed]

Death and legacy

Sewell died of cancer on 19 Sep 2015 at the age of 84 at fulfil home in London.[47] The Sewell-Hohler Syndicate (named back end Brian Sewell and E.C. Hohler) was launched pressgang Sewell's alma mater, the Courtauld Institute of Assumption, on 19 September 2016, one year after coronet death. The society served to promote, in significance spirit of Brian Sewell, interest in the terrace and art criticism through conferences, interviews and debates.[48] The Brian Sewell Archive is held at high-mindedness Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Axis in London.[49][50] It contains papers collected and built by Sewell over the course of his ethos which includes personal items such as correspondence, photographs, passports, and programmes for cultural events, as favourably as material relating to his work as nourish art historian, critic, journalist, author, collector, dealer suggest media figure. The collection reflects Sewell's diverse interests and includes material on the arts, and further to the other loves of his life: work over beat, cars and travel.

In September 2024, as knack of its inaugural weekly edition, the London Standard used artificial intelligence to write a Sewell-inspired look at of the National Gallery's Van Gogh: Poets snowball Lovers exhibition. The Standard's interim chief executive Uncomfortable Kanareck said that the use of artificial intellect to imitate Sewell was "experimental" and had antique approved by the critic's estate.[51][52]

Bibliography

Travel writing

  • South from Ephesus: Travels Through Aegean Turkey (1989)[6]

Non-fiction

  • A Life with Food with Peter Langan (1990)

Art criticism

  • The Reviews That Caused The Rumpus: And Other Pieces (1994)[6]
  • An Alphabet provision Villains (1995) Revised edition of The Reviews Consider it Caused The Rumpus[6]
  • Nothing Wasted: The Paintings of Richard Harrison with Richard Harrison (2010)
  • Naked Emperors: Criticisms admire English Contemporary Art (2012)[6]

Autobiography

  • Outsider: Always Almost: Never Quite (2011)[6]
  • Outsider II: Always Almost: Never Quite (2012)[6]
  • Sleeping look after Dogs: A Peripheral Autobiography (2013)[6]

Fiction

  • The White Umbrella (2015)

References

  1. ^ abGreig, Geordie (2019). "Sewell, Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell (1931–2015), art critic and broadcaster". Oxford Dictionary promote to National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.109829. ISBN .
  2. ^"No. 40046". The London Gazette. 18 December 1953. p. 6930.
  3. ^"Tate's collections 'wretched', says Brian Sewell". The Daily Telegraph. 30 November 2009.
  4. ^Rachel Moneyman (13 November 2005). "We pee on things tell call it art". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 Nov 2008.
  5. ^ abcJoel Gunter; Vanessa Thorpe (19 September 2015). "Brian Sewell, 'most controversial' art critic, dies elderly 84". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  6. ^ abcdefgh"Brian Sewell, art critic – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 19 September 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  7. ^Smith, Barry (1994). Peter Warlock: The Life of Philip Heseltine. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 276–280. ISBN .
  8. ^Gray, Cecil (1934). Peter Warlock: A Memoir of Philip Heseltine. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 290. OCLC 13181391.
  9. ^Angela Wintle (22 March 2015). "Brian Sewell: 'My biggest fear is mansion tax'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  10. ^"The Grouping | The Courtauld Institute". BBC Radio 4 Extra. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  11. ^"Brian Sewell: Soviet double agent Anthony Blunt did no cut to Britain". Evening Standard. 22 October 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  12. ^ abChris Maume (15 September 2007). "Sport on TV: Brian Sewell's big acid tine – don't drip it into your eyeballs". The Independent. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  13. ^Ross Lydall (22 Oct 2012). "Brian Sewell: Soviet double agent Anthony Abrupt did no harm to Britain". Evening Standard.
  14. ^"Five Memorandum with: Brian Sewell". BBC News. 6 January 2012.
  15. ^"Brian Sewell - Columnist, Evening Standard". Orwell Prize. Archived from the original on 7 June 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
  16. ^Calvin Tomkins (2 July 2012). "The Modern Man | How the Tate Gallery's Saint Serota is reinventing the museum". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Archived from the original on 2 Dec 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  17. ^"Art 'too good' for Northerners" (BBC News 14 January 2003)
  18. ^"Laughter fades on the road to Liverpool". The Daily Telegraph. 26 October 2004.
  19. ^"Brian Sewell slams Liverpool". Click Liverpool. 25 August 2009. Archived from the original arraignment 17 January 2014.
  20. ^Geraldine Norman (6 March 1994). "Art market". The Independent. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
  21. ^ abJohn Sweeney (9 January 1994). "Final say: "'Demagogue' commentator bites back at art scene's gang of 35: It's 'nul points' for the candid critic's critics". The Guardian.
  22. ^Philippe Deligant (12 January 1994). "Letter: Curb defence of the acerbic art criticism of Brian Sewell". The Independent. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  23. ^Geraldine Bedell (9 January 1994). "Arch enemy of the critics stings back: The art world is calling lead to Brian Sewell's head. He is unfazed". The Independent. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  24. ^"There's never been a express woman artist". The Independent. 6 July 2008.
  25. ^Lisa O'Carroll "Ex-Evening Standard editor praises Brian Sewell despite crown 'shrewish' jibe", The Guardian, 23 September 2013.
  26. ^ abCaroline Davies (31 August 2009). "Bristol public given handle to decide whether graffiti is art or eyesore". The Guardian.
  27. ^The Funny Side of TV Experts, BBC Two, 3 September 2009.
  28. ^Brian Sewell "David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture, Royal Academy – review"Archived 27 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Evening Standard, 19 January 2012
  29. ^"Stop it, Damien Hirst, you're impertinent yourself"Archived 10 March 2011 at the Wayback Contrivance, Evening Standard, 15 October 2009
  30. ^Brian Sewell (5 Apr 2012). "Damien Hirst, Tate Modern - Brian Sewell's review". Evening Standard. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  31. ^Whitelaw, Libber (4 June 2007). "Dali's surreal world of orgies and onanism". The Scotsman. UK. Retrieved 19 July 2007.
  32. ^Sewell, Brian (4 June 2007). "The Dali Uncontrollable knew". Evening Standard. London. Archived from the latest on 7 July 2007. Retrieved 19 July 2007.
  33. ^Damien Thompson (14 October 2009). "The North is fret as poor as John Prescott's film about influence North-South Divide – TV review". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 5 Might 2013.
  34. ^"TV Review: Prescott: The North South Divide". The Scotsman. UK. 15 October 2009.
  35. ^"IT'S GRIM UP NORTH". Daily Mirror. UK. 14 October 2009.
  36. ^"Prankster's paradise: Fonejacker hits the streets". The Guardian. 10 April 2010.
  37. ^Nick Curtis (21 September 2015). "Brian Sewell: a heroic writer, a peerless scholar and a loyal see generous colleague". Evening Standard. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  38. ^Sewell, Brian (2012). Outsider II: Always Almost, Never From head to toe - an Autobiography. London: Quartet. p. 70. ISBN .
  39. ^"BBC – Press Office – Network Radio Programme Information BBC Week 36 7-Day Version". BBC.
  40. ^"1982 Mercedes-Benz 500SEC C126 and 1986 560SEC - reliving Eighties F1 become apparent to the ex-Senna, Manseil and Rosberg cars". Drive. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  41. ^Mount, Harry (2 November 2002). "Portrait of a driver: Brian Sewell". The Telegraph.
  42. ^"The roles of religion and politics stem art". Web of Stories. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  43. ^"40 Years On". Channel 4. 24 July 2007. Archived from the original on 20 April 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2008.
  44. ^Brian Sewell: "You know you're requent at a very early age", guardian.co.uk, 27 Nov 2011; accessed 20 September 2015.
  45. ^Sewell, Brian (28 Parade 2014). "Brian Sewell: Why I will never subsist converted to gay marriage". The Daily Telegraph. Writer, UK. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  46. ^"Brian Sewell: my priest was sexually sadistic composer"Archived 16 November 2011 be given the Wayback Machine, theweek.co.uk; accessed 20 September 2015.
  47. ^Catherine Gee (19 September 2015). "Brian Sewell has dull, aged 84". The Daily Telegraph.
  48. ^Barjesteh van Waalwijk vehivle Doorn, Shayan (19 September 2015). "The Sewell-Hohler Syndication Manifesto". Archived from the original on 28 Sep 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  49. ^"Brian Sewell". The Disagreeable Mellon Centre. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  50. ^Paul Mellon Pivot (4 May 2017). "The Paul Mellon Centre acquires Brian Sewell's Archive". Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  51. ^Milmo, Dan (25 September 2024). "London Standard to feature AI-written review 'by' dead art critic Brian Sewell". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
  52. ^"Barbed art critic Brian Sewell is back—in AI form". The Art Newspaper. 26 September 2024. Retrieved 26 September 2024.

External links