Robert Studley Forrest Hughes
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Robert Studley Forrest Hughes AO |
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|---|---|
| Born |
28 July 1938 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 6 August 2012 (aged 74) The Bronx, New York City, US |
| Education | Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney |
| Occupation |
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| Spouse(s) |
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| Parent(s) | Geoffrey Forrest Hughes |
| Relatives |
Thomas Eyre Forrest Hughes (brother) Lucy Turnbull (niece) |
Robert Studley Forrest Hughes AO (28 July 1938 – 6 August 2012) was an Australian-born art critic, writer, and producer of television documentaries. His best seller The Fatal Shore (1987) is a study of the British penal colonies and early history of Australia. He was described in 1997 by Robert Boynton of The New York Times as "the most famous art critic in the world."
Hughes earned widespread recognition for his book and television series on Modern art, The Shock of the New, and for his longstanding position as art critic with TIME magazine. Known for his contentious critiques of art and artists, Hughes was generally conservative in his tastes, although he did not belong to a particular philosophical camp. Raising criticism to the level of art, his writing was noted for its power and elegance.
Hughes was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1938. His father and paternal grandfather were lawyers. Hughes's father, Geoffrey Forrest Hughes, was a pilot in the First World War, with later careers as a solicitor and company director. He died from lung cancer when Robert was aged 12. His mother was Margaret Eyre Sealy, née Vidal. His older brother, Thomas Eyre Forrest Hughes, is an Australian lawyer and a former Attorney-General of Australia.
Growing up in Rose Bay, Sydney, Hughes was educated at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview before studying arts and then architecture at the University of Sydney. At university, he associated with the Sydney "Push" – a group of artists, writers, intellectuals and drinkers. Among the group were Germaine Greer and Clive James. Hughes, an aspiring artist and poet, abandoned his university endeavours to become first a cartoonist and then an art critic for the Sydney periodical The Observer, edited by Donald Horne. Around this time he wrote a history of Australian painting, titled The Art of Australia, published in 1966 and still considered an important work. Hughes was briefly involved in the original Sydney version of Oz magazine and wrote art criticism for The Nation and The Sunday Mirror.
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