Edward Lucie-Smith obituary

Art historian, critic and poet who hosted ‘the Group’, a literary workshop of the 1950s and 60s The poet, art critic and historian Edward Lucie-Smith, who has died aged 93, was both prolific and polymathic. He wrote almost 100 full-length books, including studies of individual artists and large-scale historical surveys, among them The Male Nude: A Modern View (1985), Impressionist Women (1989) and Art and Civilization (1992). His suspicion of contemporary pieties did not lead him to any quick dismissal of contemporary work; rather, he remained permanently excited by the new, and keen to communicate what he saw in it. In an interview in 2017, he gave his account of what he saw as the value of an art critic: “1. Pointing out what they think is good. 2. Saying why they think it’s good, in terms transparent enough for the audience they are addressing to understand.” His own work more than fulfilled this simple manifesto. Continue reading...