Brian Sewell (born 15 July 1931)^[1] is an English art critic and media personality. He writes for the London Evening Standard and is noted for artistic conservatism and his acerbic view of the Turner Prize and conceptual art. Sewell has been described as "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic".^[2]

Early life[link]

The illegitimate son of the composer Peter Warlock,^[3][4] who died seven months before he was born, Sewell was brought up in Kensington, London, and was educated at the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Hampstead, northwest London. Offered a place to read history at Oxford,^[5] Sewell chose instead to enter the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, where he was tutored by Anthony Blunt and became his close friend. Sewell graduated in 1957 and worked at Christie's auction house, specialising in Old Master paintings and drawings. After leaving Christie's he became an art dealer. He completed his National Service in the Royal Army Service Corps, in which he was commissioned. He has since been a regular commentator on the ITV series Bad Lad's Army, offering insight into 1950s military life.^{[citation needed]}

Art criticism[link]

In 1984, he became art critic for the Evening Standard (replacing avant-garde critic Richard Cork). He won press awards including Critic of the Year in 1988, Arts Journalist of the Year in 1994, the Hawthornden Prize for Art Criticism in 1995 and the Foreign Press Award (Arts) in 2000. In April 2003 he was awarded the George Orwell Prize for his column in the Evening Standard.^[6]

In criticisms of the Tate Gallery's art, he coined the phrase, the "Serota Tendency", after its director Nicholas Serota. Although he appeared on BBC Radio 4 in the early 1990s, it was not until the late 1990s that he became a household figure through his appearances on television. He is known for his formal, old-fashioned RP diction and for his anti-populist sentiments. He offended people in Gateshead by claiming an exhibition was too important to be held only at the town's Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and should be shown to "more sophisticated" audiences in London; he has also disparaged Liverpool as a cultural city.^{[citation needed]}

In 1994, 35 art world signatories wrote a letter to the Evening Standard attacking Sewell for "homophobia", "misogyny", "demagogy", "hypocrisy",^[7] "artistic prejudice", "formulaic insults and predictable scurrility".^[8] Signatories included Karsten Schubert, Maureen Paley,^[9] Michael Craig-Martin, Angela and Matthew Flowers, Professor Christopher Frayling, Rene Gimpel, Susan Hiller, John Hoyland, Sarah Kent, Nicholas Logsdail, George Melly, Sandy Nairne, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Bridget Riley, Michelle Roberts, Richard Shone, Marina Warner, Natalie Wheen, and Rachel Whiteread.^[7]

He responded with comments on many of the signatories, saying that Paley was "the curatrix of innumerable silly little Arts Council exhibitions",^[7] and that Whiteread was "mortified by my dismissal of her work for the Turner Prize".^[7] A letter supporting Sewell from 20 other art world signatories accused the writers of attempted censorship to promote "a relentless programme of neo-conceptual art in all the main London venues".^[10]

Sewell's attitude to female artists has been controversial. In July 2008 he was quoted in The Independent as saying:

"The art market is not sexist. The likes of Bridget Riley and Louise Bourgeois are of the second and third rank. There has never been a first-rank woman artist. Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness. Women make up 50 per cent or more of classes at art school. Yet they fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it's something to do with bearing children."^[11]

Sewell is notably outspoken with his opinions, and has frequently insulted the general public for their views on art.^{[citation needed]} Consequently, he is better known by many people for controversy than for art criticism.^{[by whom?]} He has been quoted, with regard to public praise for the work of Banksy in Bristol, as follows:

"The public doesn't know good from bad. For this city to be guided by the opinion of people who don't know anything about art is lunacy. It doesn't matter if they [the public] like it."^[12]

He went on to assert that Banksy himself "should have been put down at birth."^[12] Media personality Clive Anderson has described him as "a man intent on keeping his Christmas card list nice and short."^[13]

Sewell is also known for his disdain for Damien Hirst, describing him as "fucking dreadful".^[14]

A review in the Evening Standard of the David Hockney Royal Academy Exhibition titled 'A Bigger Picture' Sewell summed up his review by saying:

"Hockney is not another Turner expressing, in high seriousness, his debt to the old master; Hockney is not another Picasso teasing Velázquez and Delacroix with not quite enough wit; here Hockney is a vulgar prankster, trivialising not only a painting that he is incapable of understanding and could never execute, but in involving him in the various parodies, demeaning Picasso too." [1], 19 January 2012.

Television[link]

In 2003, Sewell made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, as a documentary called The Naked Pilgrim, produced by Wag TV for Channel 5. Although he has not practised for decades, Sewell considers himself a Roman Catholic, prompting an emotional response to the faith of pilgrims at Lourdes. The series attracted large audiences and won the Sandford St. Martin Trust award for Best Religious Programme.^[15] Following The Naked Pilgrim Sewell presented on two more series for Channel 5: Brian Sewell's Phantoms & Shadows: 100 Years of Rolls-Royce in 2004 and Brian Sewell's Grand Tour in 2006. Sewell also appeared as a guest film reviewer on Channel 5's Movie Lounge, where he frequently savaged films.^{[citation needed]}

In Dirty Dalí: A Private View on Channel 4 on 3 June 2007, Sewell described his acquaintance with Salvador Dalí in the late 1960s, which included lying in the foetal position without trousers in the armpit of a figure of Christ and masturbating for Dalí, who pretended to take photos while fumbling in his trousers.^[16][17] Sewell has appeared twice as panellist on the BBC's news quiz Have I Got News For You? and tried to teach cricketer Phil Tufnell about art in ITV's Don't Call Me Stupid.

He acted as Big Brother during 2008's Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack.^[18]

Sewell was the voice of Sir Kiftsgate in an episode of the children's cartoon The Big Knights. He also has a programme on Voom HD Network's Art Channel: Gallery HD called Brian Sewell's Grand Tour, in which he tours beautiful cities (primarily in Italy) visiting museums, towns, churches, historic sights, public squares, monuments, profound architectural spots and meeting a local to discuss culture and art. Sewell reflects the 18th century, giving the perspective of what it would have been like as a 'Grand Tourist'. Then he elaborates on what has become of these sights and lost throughout history.^{[citation needed]}

In a 2009 BBC documentary about the so-called North-South Divide, presented by ex-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Sewell caused controversy by declaring that the solution to the divide was to send a pox or a plague upon the North so that the people there can all just die quietly.^[19][20][21]

Television credits[link]

Satirical portrayal[link]

In April 2010 the channel 4 television show 'Facejacker' was broadcast in the U.K, including a sketch involving a character called Brian Badonde who was portrayed as an inept art critic presenting a show called "Voyage in to Art" with the fictional speech impediment "Bourettes" which causes him to begin every word with a 'B', and often refers to art as bart. The character was loud, flamboyant and openly homosexual. The creators of the show have explicitly acknowledged that the character is based on Brian Sewell.

Other activities[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2011)

Sewell is a museum adviser in South Africa, Germany and the United States. He is also a patron of the British charity NORM-UK which raises awareness of circumcision and other forms of surgical alteration of the genitals. Sewell has also provided voice-overs for a variety of television commercials including the Victoria and Albert Museum and feta cheese.

Brian Sewell is also a noted aficionado of classic automobiles, a fan of stock car racing and over several decades has written extensively about cars, classic and contemporary, in the Evening Standard and elsewhere. In both his TV series, on the pilgrimage to Santiago and the Grand Tour (see above), he drove his venerable Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC coupé.^[22] Sewell has expressed a preference for driving his Mercedes barefoot.^[23]

Personal life[link]

In a television programme broadcast on Channel 4 on 24 July 2007,^[24] marking the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 which partially decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales, Sewell said, "I never came out... but I have slowly emerged".^[25] Sewell has been described as bisexual but has also described himself as gay, saying he knew he was probably at the age of six.^[26] He has chastised himself for his attraction to men, describing it 'as an "affliction" and a "disability" and [told] readers, "no homosexual has ever chosen this sexual compulsion"'. In the first episode of The Naked Pilgrim Sewell alluded to the loss of his virginity at the hands of a 60-year-old French woman "who knew what she was doing and was determined"; Sewell was 20 at the time. In his autobiography, however, Sewell reveals that he in fact lost his virginity at the age of 15 to a fellow pupil at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School.^[27] In the late 1960s or early 1970s, when Sewell visited Salvador Dalí at his house in Cadaques, Dalí convinced Sewell to strip and masturbate for him while he took (or pretended to take) photographs.^[28]

In an interview for That's Mad website, Sewell revealed that he suffers from depression, and as a cure usually just sleeps for a long time during the more severe phases.^[29]

References[link]