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.

Honours

• 1991 - Order of Australia
• 1995 - granted an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Melbourne
• 1996 - elected to membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1997 - elected one of 40 "living national treasures" after a general vote conducted by the Australian media on behalf of the Australian National Trust
• 2000 - London Sunday Times Writer of the Year (previous recipients of the award including Anthony Burgess, Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, and Salman Rushdie)

Publications

• The Art of Australia, 1966. ISBN
• The Shock of the New: Art and the Century of Change, 1981. ISBN
• The Fatal Shore, 1987. ISBN
• The Shock of the New: Art and the Century of Change, updated and enlarged edition, Thames & Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0500275823
• Nothing if Not Critical, 1991.
• Barcelona,
• Culture of Complaint, 1993. ISBN
• American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America, 1997. ISBN
• A Jerk on One End: Reflections of a Mediocre Fisherman, 1998. ISBN
• The New Shick of the New, 2004.