Leading article: A tribute to one of Australia's greatest exports
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.To adapt one of Robert Hughes' own observations (on Caravaggio): "There was art (criticism) before him and art (criticism) after him, and they were not the same." It is hardly an exaggeration. Mr Hughes, who died in New York on Monday, was one of Australia's great exports, a world-class public intellectual whose outspoken critiques of the art world, groundbreaking television series, and slew of history books – including the seminal story of his homeland, The Fatal Shore – transformed the once grubby world of the hack critic into so much more.
Forthright, acerbic, unimpressed by pretension; he was appalled by what he considered the shallowness of much modern art and the vastly inflated market in which it is so often sold. "A Rodin in a parking lot is still a misplaced Rodin. But this is just bricks," he famously commented on Carl Andre's controversial work. Robert Hughes, we will miss you.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments