Hughes, Robert

Hughes, Robert (b Sydney, 28 July 1938). Australian art critic, active mainly in the USA. In 1964 he moved to Europe (first to Italy, then England) and in 1970 settled in New York as art critic of Time magazine. He writes mainly on 20th-century art and has a richly deserved reputation as a witty and penetrating observer of the contemporary art scene. His books include The Art of Australia (1966, revised 1970), Heaven and Hell in Western Art (1969), and Nothing If Not Critical: Selected Essays on Art and Artists (1990). He has also made films for television, notably two much-praised series: The Shock of the New (1980) and American Visions (1996), both with accompanying books of the same title. In his work for television he has received the kind of praise previously enjoyed by Kenneth Clark, but Hughes's approach is very different—forceful rather than suave.