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Art critic and writer Robert Hughes passes away

Art critic and writer Robert Hughes passes away

TRIBUTES have been paid to Robert Hughes the art critic and writer who has passed away. He was 74.

Born in Australia, Mr. Hughes had studied architecture at Sydney University but decided to abandon his studies and move to Europe in the 1960s. 

After a spell spent painting and studying in Italy he moved to London where he worked for the Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator. But it was in the United States, where he became art critic for Time magazine, that he was to spend most of his career. 

His first book, The Art of Australia: A Critical Survey, was published in 1966. 

This led to the first of his television programmes, The Art of Australia, which was first broadcast in ten parts during the mid-1970s.

He went on to make what is regarded by many as one of the landmark TV series on art. The Shock of the New, which was made for the BBC in 1980, examined the development of art post-Impressionism.

In 1999 Mr. Hughes was seriously injured in a road accident in Western Australia. He was to recall this experience in his documentary, Goya: Crazy Like A Genius (2002), see below.

One of his most successful books had nothing to do with art. The Fatal Shore, published in 1987, looked at history of the early convict settlers in Australia.

Mr. Hughes passed away in New York following a long illness.

To view Goya: Crazy Like A Genius, click here.

 

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