Monday, August 20, 2012

RIP Robert Hughes

RIP Robert Hughes


Art critic Robert Hughes dies in New York at 74



Relevant excerpt:
"... Comedian Barry Humphries [a/k/a Dame Edna] remembered Hughes as an old friend and towering critic.
“Bob was an old friend and a great and fearless critic who wrote at least one enduring masterpiece, The Fatal Shore,” Humphries said.
“He gave a wonderful and witty speech at my last birthday party in New York and I'm deeply saddened that alcoholism, or whatever name it sometimes goes by, should have claimed yet another distinguished victim.”
In addition to being Time Magazine's influential art critic for many years Hughes was the author of The Fatal Shore a history of Australia's founding.
For more on the incidence of alcoholism in writers see Chapter Seven "Alcoholism Writes" in Vessels of Rage.