Robert Studley Forrest Hughes
Robert Studley Forrest Hughes, OA (born 1938) is an Australian art critic, writer, documentary broadcaster and republican (anti-monarchist). He resides in New York.Born in Sydney, Australia, Hughes was educated at St Ignatius' College before going on to study arts and architecture at the University of Sydney in 1956. During this time Hughes made a name for himself within the Sydney "Push" -- a progressive group of artists, writers, intellectuals and drinkers. Among the group were two other blazingly witty and incisive cultural observers: Germaine Greer and Clive James. Hughes left university before graduating after being commissioned to write a history of Australian painting, The Art of Australia, while still an undergraduate.
Hughes left Australia for London, England in the early 1960s, writing for such publications as the Spectator, the Telegraph, the Times and the Observer, before eventually landing the position of art critic for Time Magazine in 1970.
Hughes quickly established an unassailable position as the world's most famous and most influential art critic.
Family tragedy visited upon Hughes in April 2001 when his sculptor son Danton, aged 33, committed suicide in Australia.
Hughes has continued to write for Time Magazine, although less frequently than before a serious vehicle accident in Australia in 1998.
In recent years he has become a prominent spokesperson for the Australian Republican Movement.
Robert Hughes, art critic of TIME magazine for the last 30 years and author of 16 books to date, is by far the best-known, most esteemed, and widely read art critic writing in English today. He has made dozens of TV documentaries, mainly for the BBC and other English production companies, since the mid-1960s. He first became known to a large television audience in 1981 as the creator and host of the much-acclaimed history series on modern art THE SHOCK OF THE NEW. This was seen by 26 million public TV viewers in the U.S., and by comparable audiences in Britain and his native Australia. His 1997 series on American art and architecture, AMERICAN VISIONS, received equal attention and acclaim. In that year, his achievements as a cultural broadcaster were recognized by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which bestowed its most prestigious award on him, The Richard Dimbleby Award, for "the most important personal contribution to factual television" of 1996-97.
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