Brian Sewell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brian Sewell (born 15 July 1931 in Kensington, London)^[1] is an English art critic. He writes for the Evening Standard and is noted for his artistic conservatism and acerbic reviews of the Turner Prize and conceptual art, and along with his upper class demeanor, he is often made into a figure of fun.

[edit] Life

Sewell's father died before he was born. He was raised in Kensington, London, attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, and then Courtauld Institute of Art, where he was tutored by Anthony Blunt and became his friend as a result. Sewell graduated in 1957. He worked at the auction house Christie's, specialising in Old Master paintings and drawings.

In 1984 he became the art critic of the Evening Standard (replacing "avant-garde" critic Richard Cork), where he has won many press awards, including Critic of the Year 1988, Arts Journalist of the Year 1994, the Hawthornden Prize for Art Criticism 1995 and the Foreign Press Award (Arts) 2000. In his criticisms of the Tate Gallery's art, he coined the phrase, the "Serota Tendency", after its director Nicholas Serota. It was not until the late 1990s that he became a household media figure through his appearances on television.

He is noted for his affected manner and anti-populist sentiments. He offended some people in Gateshead by claiming an exhibition was too important to be held only at the Baltic and should be shown to "more sophisticated" audiences in London. He has become a popular subject for impersonation and is sometimes described as having "the poshest voice in Britain", or, as Paul Merton once told him: "You make the Queen sound rough." Sewell is imitated by Jon Culshaw for the Dead Ringers comedy show.

In 2004, Brian Sewell made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, as a travelogue-cum-architectural criticism documentary in The Naked Pilgrim, a reference to Quentin Crisp's The Naked Civil Servant. Although he has not practised the religion for several decades, Sewell still considers himself to be a member of the Catholic Church, prompting an emotional response to the faith of pilgrims to Lourdes. The Naked Pilgrim was followed by Brian Sewell's Grand Tour, broadcast on Five in 2006.

Sewell is unmarried and is a museum adviser in South Africa, Germany and the United States and patron of the British charity NORM-UK which raises awareness of issues surrounding circumcision and other forms of surgical alteration of the genitals.