Waldemar Januszczak
| Waldemar Januszczak | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
12 January 1954 Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, UK |
| Occupation | Art critic and television presenter |
Waldemar Januszczak (born 12 January 1954) is a British art critic and television documentary producer and presenter. Formerly the art critic of The Guardian, he took the same role at The Sunday Times in 1992, and has twice won the Critic of the Year award.
Januszczak was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, to Polish refugees who had arrived in England after the Second World War. His father, a policeman in Sanok, whose job had included exposing Communists, found work as a railway carriage cleaner and died, aged 57, when a train ran over him at Basingstoke railway station. His widow, then aged 33, found work as a dairymaid. This all happened when Waldemar was one year old.
The young Januszczak attended Divine Mercy College, a school for the children of Polish refugees which the Congregation of Marian Fathers had set up at Fawley Court, Henley-on-Thames.
After studying history of art at the University of Manchester, Januszczak became an art critic – and then arts editor – of The Guardian. In 1990 he was appointed head of arts at the UK's Channel 4 television and in 1992 he became art critic for The Sunday Times. He has been voted Critic of the Year twice by the Press Association.
Januszczak has been described as "a passionate art lover, art critic and writer. His presentation style is casual but informed, enthusiastic, evocative and humorous. He bumbles about on our TV screens, doing for art what David Attenborough has done for the natural world," and someone who acts out of "a refusal to present art as elitist in any way. He makes it utterly accessible and understandable."
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