This years Turner Prize

I don't know if the forum knew that Brian Sewell, art correspondent for the Evening Standard and long time critic of the Turner Prize died this month after a long battle with cancer. He was certainly a fair but astringent scourge for the pretensions of the Art Establishment. I for one will certainly miss his reviews of current exhibitions. John

Yes, I'm sure we've all registered that - he could be so intolerant, and he was a misogynist High Tory, but I didn't care because he was just wonderful. There was a poor man who wrote to the Artists' and Illustrators' magazine years ago, saying that he'd sent some of his paintings to Sewell for comment, and he'd returned them saying they were as good as Howard Hodgkin's. The magazine gently pointed out that Brian Sewell hated Howard Hodgkin - it wasn't a compliment. For anyone who thought he was cruel and rude, though (and in fact he was in his way being kind on that occasion) I remember him as a judge on Watercolour Challenge, when he was kindness and courtesy personified. I should imagine there is no one in the world today who speaks like Brian Sewell, in those fluting, Edwardian dowager vowels, and unfortunately there are very few able to write like him, either. I would say rest in peace - but can you imagine Sewell ever being at peace? I shall miss him, and I'm sure many others will too.