Art critic Robert Hughes dies in New York at 74

The Australian ^ | August 7, 2012 | Matthew Westwood

[EveningStar]

The brilliant and sometimes controversial art critic and historian Robert Hughes has died in New York at the age of 74.

[EveningStar]

Australian critic Robert Hughes dead

'Shock of the New' critic Robert Hughes dies at 74

Wikipedia

[EveningStar]

ping

[VanShuyten]

This is sad news. His history of the founding of Australia, The Fatal Shore, is a great read, and his art history comments are generally good, too.

[PUGACHEV]

This is sad news. The Fatal Shore was a very good read, but Robert Hughes' audio recording of his own book was good beyond description. The man had a deep, wondefully expressive, and precise voice. Get a copy and listen to it, if you possibly can.

[PUGACHEV]

This is sad news. The Fatal Shore was a very good read, but Robert Hughes' audio recording of his own book was good beyond description. The man had a deep, wondefully expressive, and precise voice. Get a copy and listen to it, if you possibly can.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Joe 6-pack]

Robert Hughes and Sir Kenneth Clark were driving forces in my decision to pick up a second major in Art History.

RIP

[x]

The Shock of the New was excellent -- both the book and the television series.

Hughes got pretty annoying in his later years, as privileged Australians sometimes do -- like it's their right or something or like they'd be cheating us out of something if they didn't make nuisances of themselves.

Then there was his serious accident back in Australia and the tragi-farcical trials that followed.

Say what you will. He was one of a kind. And we won't see his like again.

Fun fact: Hughes was one of the two hosts of the original 20/20 newsmagazine. The show was so unexpected and unusual that they were replaced after one performance by reliably boring old Hugh Downs.

[mojito]

Sad news indeed. A great critic and writer. I don't think I ever read a piece by him from which I didn't learn something new and interesting.

Politically he may have been a liberal, but as a critic he was as conservative as they come. Quotes like this made me laugh out loud:

“As early as 1993, he described the work of Jeff Koons as “so overexposed that it loses nothing in reproduction and gains nothing in the original.”

“Koons is the baby to Andy Warhol’s Rosemary,” he summarized, adding: “He has done for narcissism what Michael Milken did for the junk bond.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/arts/robert-hughes-art-critic-whose-writing-was-elegant-and-contentious-dies-at-74.html

RIP.