Robert Hughes 1938–2012

Robert Hughes, native of Aus­tralia and extra­or­dinary art critic of the world, died in New York, on Monday, August 6^th http://​www​.nytimes​.com/​2​0​1​2​/​0​8​/​0​7​/​a​r​t​s​/​r​o​b​e​r​t​-​h​u​g​h​e​s​-​a​r​t​-​c​r​i​t​i​c​-​w​h​o​s​e​-​w​r​i​t​i​n​g​-​w​a​s​-​e​l​e​g​a​n​t​-​a​n​d​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​i​o​u​s​-​d​i​e​s​-​a​t​-​7​4​.html?_r=1 .

In 1981, his BBC/​Time Life series, The Shock of the New, was broadcast in America on PBS. It was, for me, an eye-​​opening series that was, and con­tinues to be, the ultimate primer on modern art. Lucky for us readers, the book, The Shock of the New, based on the series, was pub­lished the same year and is still in print. Hughes’s writing enlivens the world of art by reaching into dance, engi­neering, lit­er­ature, history, ethics and just about every other facet of human life.

Hughes’ body of work includes:  Rome: A Cul­tural, Visual, and Per­sonal History;  Barcelona The Great Enchantress; Rome; American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America; Lucian Freud Paintings; Nothing if Not Critical: Selected Essays on Art and Artists; The Frank Auerbach; Fatal Shore; Goya; Things I Didn’t Know; Culture of Com­plaint: The Fraying of America.