Anthony David Bernard Sylvester (21 September 1924 – 19 June 2001) was a British

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

and curator. Although he received no formal education in the arts, during his long career he was influential in promoting modern artists, in particular

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

, and

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

Life and career

Born into a north-London

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, Sylvester had trouble as a student at

University College School ("Slowly but surely") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Mark Beard , r_head_label = , r_hea ...

and was thrown out of the family home. He wrote for the paper ''

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

'' and went to Paris in 1947 where he met Alberto Giacometti, one of the strongest influences on him. Sylvester is credited with coining the term ''

kitchen sink Kitchen sink may refer to: * ''Freaks of Nature'' (film), a 2015 comedy horror film, also known as ''Kitchen Sink'' * ''Kitchen Sink'', a 1989 horror short directed by Alison Maclean * ''Kitchen Sink'' (TV series), cookery series on Food Network ...

'' originally to describe a strand of post-war British painting typified by

John Bratby John Randall Bratby RA (19 July 1928 – 20 July 1992) was an English painter who founded the kitchen sink realism style of art that was influential in the late 1950s. He made portraits of his family and celebrities. His works were seen i ...

. Sylvester used the phrase negatively but it was widely applied to other art forms including literature and theatre. During the 1950s, Sylvester worked with

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

, Freud and Bacon but also supported Richard Hamilton and the other " Young Turks" of British Pop art. This led him to become a prominent media figure in the 1960s. During the 1960s and 1970s Sylvester occupied a number of roles at the Arts Council of Great Britain serving on advisory panels and on the main panel. He was also a trustee of the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, among a number of such positions. In 1969, he curated a

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

exhibition at the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...

for which he was assisted by a young

Nicholas Serota Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota, (born 27 April 1946) is an English art historian and curator, who served as the Director of the Tate from 1988 to 2017. He is currently Chair of Arts Council England, a role which he has held since February 2017. Se ...

. During the 1970s, he became interested in and collected early oriental carpets. and in 1983, he co-curated (with Donald King of the Victoria and Albert Museum) an exhibition, ''The Eastern Carpet in the Western World'', at the

. Sylvester was awarded a

Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...

at the 1993

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

for curating an exhibition of Francis Bacon's work. He was married to Pamela Briddon (three daughters; marriage dissolved). He was also the father of the artist

Cecily Brown Cecily Brown (born 1969) is a British painter. Her style displays the influence of a variety of contemporary painters, from Willem de Kooning, Francis BaconScott, Sue (2013). "Cecily Brown" in ''The Reckoning: Women Artists of the New Millennium ...

with the writer

Shena Mackay Shena Mackay FRSL (born 1944) is a Scottish novelist born in Edinburgh. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1996 for '' The Orchard on Fire'', and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction in ...

Books

* King, Donald and Sylvester, David eds. ''The Eastern Carpet in the Western World, From the 15th to the 17th century'', Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1983, * David Sylvester "Interviste con artisti americani" Castelvecchi editore, 2012 * * * * * * * * * *

Notes

External links

''Guardian'' obituary June 20, 2001
* David Sylvester,

, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 13 September 2007 * John Tusa.
Interview with David Sylvester
,

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sylvester, David 1924 births 2001 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres English art critics People educated at University College School