Whitford, Frank

Whitford, Frank (1941– ). British writer, teacher, and broadcaster, born in Bishopstoke, Hampshire. He studied at Wadham College, Oxford, the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and the Freie Universität, West Berlin. For several years he worked as a cartoonist for the Sunday Mirror and the London Evening Standard, then from 1970 taught at various institutions, including the Slade School and the Royal College of Art. His books (mainly on German and Austrian art) include Expressionism (1970), Japanese Prints and Western Painters (1977), Bauhaus (1984), and monographs on Kandinsky (1971), Schiele (1981), and Klimt (1990 and 1993). They combine high scholarly standards with an accessible style. Whitford has also helped to organize several exhibitions, has written for various journals and newspapers, particularly the Sunday Times, and has appeared in radio and television programmes about art, including the Channel 4 quiz show Gallery, in which Maggi Hambling and George Melly were other regulars.