John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith (born 27 February 1933), known as Edward Lucie-Smith, is a Jamaican-born English writer, poet, art critic, curator and broadcaster. He has been highly prolific in these fields, writing or editing over a hundred books, his subjects gradually shifting around the late 1960s from mostly literature to mostly art.
Biography
Lucie-Smith was born in
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inte ...
, the son of Mary Frances (née Lushington) and John Dudley Lucie-Smith. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1946.
[Biograph]
Retrieved 4 October 2018.
/ref> He was educated at The King's School, Canterbury, and, after a little time in Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, he read history at Merton College, Oxford
Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ...
, from 1951 to 1954.
After serving in the Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
as an education officer and working as a copywriter, he became a full-time writer (as well as anthologist and photographer). He succeeded Philip Hobsbaum in organising The Group, a London-centred poets' group.
At the beginning of the 1980s he conducted several series of interviews, ''Conversations with Artists'', for 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, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The sta ...
. He was a contributor to ''The London Magazine
''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics.
1732–1785
''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...
'', in which he wrote art reviews, and wrote regularly for the independent magazine ''ArtReview
''ArtReview'' is an international contemporary art magazine based in London, founded in 1948. Its sister publication, ''ArtReview Asia'', was established in 2013.
History
Launched as a fortnightly broadsheet in February 1949 by a retired country ...
'' from the 1960s until the 2000s. A prolific writer, he has written more than one hundred books in total on a variety of subjects, chiefly art history as well as biographies and poetry.
In addition he has curated a number of art exhibitions, including three Peter Moores projects at the Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group.
History of the Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...
in Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
; the New British Painting (1988–90) and two retrospectives at the New Orleans Museum of Art. He is a curator of the Bermondsey
Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham ...
Project Space.
In recent years Edward Lucie-Smith has been promoting drawings attributed to Francis Bacon owned by Italian journalist Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino. However, Christie's, Sotheby's and the Francis Bacon Estate have not authenticated these works known as the 'Francis Bacon Italian Drawings'. Martin Harrison, the editor of the Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné, does not include 'The Francis Bacon Italian Drawings' and does not see the hand of Bacon in these drawings.
His uncle Euan Lucie-Smith was one of the first mixed-heritage infantry officers in a regular British Army regiment, and the first killed in World War I.
Bibliography
Poetry and fiction
*
*''A Tropical Childhood and Other Poems'' (1961)
*''Confessions & Histories'' (1964)
*''Penguin Modern Poets 6'' (1964; with Jack Clemo and George MacBeth)
*''A Game of French and English'' (1965) poems
*''Jazz for the N.U.F.'' (1965)
*''Mystery in the Universe: Notes on An Interview with Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
'' (1965)
*''The Penguin Book of Elizabethan Verse'' (1965), editor
*''A Choice of Browning's Verse'' (1967)
*''Five Great Odes by Paul Claudel'' (1967), translator
*''Borrowed Emblems'' (1967)
*''Jonah: Selected Poems of Jean-Paul de Dadelsen'' (1967), translator
*''Silence'' (1967), poetry
*''The Penguin Book of Satirical Verse'' (1967), editor
*''The Little Press Movement in England and America'' (1968)
*''More Beasts for Guillaume Apollinaire'' (1968)
*''Snow Poem'' (1968)
*''Towards Silence'' (1968)
*''Egyptian Ode'' (1969)
*''Holding Your Eight Hands'' (1969; science fiction verse anthology), editor
*''Six Kinds of Creature'' (1969)
*''Six More Beasts'' (1970)
*'' British Poetry since 1945'' (1970 anthology), editor
*''The Rhino'' (1971) with Ralph Steadman
*''A Garland from the Greek'' (1971)
*''French Poetry Today: a bilingual anthology'' (1971; co-editor, with Simon Watson Taylor)
*''Primer of Experimental Poetry 1, 1870–1922. Volume I'' (1971) editor
*''Two Poems of the Night'' (1972; with Ralph Steadman)
*''The Well-Wishers'' (1974)
*''The Dark Pageant'' (1977)
*''One Man Show'' (1981), with Beryl Cook
*''Private View'' (1981), with Beryl Cook
*''Bertie and the Big Red Ball'' (1982; with Beryl Cook)
*''Beasts with Bad Morals'' (1984)
*''Poems for Clocks'' (1986)
*''The lesson'' (2001)
*''Changing Shape: New and Selected Poems'' (2002)
Non-fiction
1960–1979
*''Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
'' (1961)
*''What Is a Painting?'' (1966)
*''Liverpool Scene: Recorded Live along the Mersey Beat'' (1967) editor
*''Sergei De Diaghileff (1929)'' (1968) with Anthony Howell
*''Thinking about Art: Critical Essays'' (1968)
*''Movements in Art since 1945'' (1969)
*''Art in Britain 1969–70'' (1970) with Patricia White
*''A Concise History of French Painting'' (1971)
*''Eroticism in Western Art'' (1972; revised as ''Sexuality in Western Art'', 1991)
*''Symbolist Art'' (1972)
*''Movements in Modern Art'' (1973; with Donald Carroll)
*''The First London Catalogue'' (1974)
*''Late Modern: The Visual Arts Since 1945'' (1975)
*''The Invented Eye: Masterpieces of Photography, 1839–1914'' (1975)
*''The Waking Dream Fantasy and the Surreal in Graphic Art 1450–1900'' (1975; with Aline Jacquot)
*''The Burnt Child: An Autobiography'' (1975)
*''World of the Makers: Today's Master Craftsmen and Craftswomen'' (1975)
*''How the Rich Lived: The Painter as Witness 1870–1914'' (1976; with Celestine Dars)
*''Fantin-Latour'' (1977)
*''Art Today: From Abstract Expressionism to Superrealism'' (1977)
*''Joan of Arc'' (1977)
*''Toulouse-Lautrec'' (1977)
*''Work and Struggle: The Painter as Witness, 1870–1914'' (1977; with Celestine Dars)
*''Outcasts of the Sea: Pirates and Piracy'' (1978)
*''A Concise History of Furniture'' (1979)
*''A Cultural Calendar of the 20th Century'' (1979)
*''Super Realism'' (1979)
1980–1999
*''Art in the Seventies'' (1980)
*''The Story of Craft: The Craftsman's Role in Society'' (Phaidon, Oxford, 1981; )
*''The Art of Caricature'' (1981)
*''The Body Images of the Nude'' (1981)
*''The Sculpture of Helaine Blumenfeld'' (1982)
*''A History of Industrial Design'' (1983)
*''The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms'' (1984)
*''Nudes and Flowers: 40 Watercolours by David Hutter'' (1984)
*''Steve Hawley'' (1984)
*''Art of the 1930s: The Age of Anxiety'' (1985)
*''American Art Now'' (1985)
*''Lives of the Great Twentieth Century Artists'' (1985)
*''The Male Nude: A Modern View'' (1985; with François De Louville; the book features Hockney, Kitaj & Shaw
Shaw may refer to:
Places Australia
*Shaw, Queensland
Canada
* Shaw Street, a street in Toronto
England
*Shaw, Berkshire, a village
* Shaw, Greater Manchester, a location in the parish of Shaw and Crompton
* Shaw, Swindon, a suburb of Swindon
...
), et al.)
*''Michael Leonard: Paintings'' (1985; with Lincoln Kirstein
Lincoln Edward Kirstein (May 4, 1907 – January 5, 1996) was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, philanthropist, and cultural figure in New York City, noted especially as co-founder of the New York City Ballet. He developed and s ...
)
*''American Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical'' (1986; with Paul J. Smith)
*''Sculpture Since 1945'' (1987)
*''The Self Portrait: A Modern View'' (1987; with Sean Kelly)
*''The New British Painting'' (1988; with Carolyn Cohen and Judith Higgins)
*''The Essential Osbert Lancaster: An Anthology in Brush and Pen'' (1988) editor
*''Impressionist Women'' (1989)
*''Art in the Eighties'' (1990)
*''Art Deco Painting'' (1990)
*''Fletcher Benton'' (1990; with Paul J. Karlstrom)
*''Jean Rustin'' (1990)
*''Harry Holland: The Painter and Reality'' (1991)
*''Keith Vaughan 1912–1977: Drawings of the Young Male'' (1991)
*'' Wendy Taylor'' (1992)
*''Andres Nagel'' (1992)
*''Alexander'' (1992)
*''Art and Civilization'' (1992)
*''The Faber Book of Art Anecdotes'' (1992), editor
*'' Luis Caballero: Paintings & Drawings'' (1992)
*''20th Century Latin American Art'' (1993)
*''Edward Lucie-Smith on Elizabeth Fritsch: ''Vessels from another World, Metaphysical pots Painted Stoneware'', Bellew Publishing, (1993)
*''British Art Now – A Personal View'' (1993; with Zsuzsi Roboz and Max Wykes-Joyce)
*''Fritz Scholder, A Survey of Paintings 1970–1993'' (1993)
*''Race, Sex and Gender in Contemporary Art: The Rise of Minority Culture'' (1994)
*''Elisabeth Frink: A Portrait'' (1994)
*''John Kirby: The Company of Strangers'' (1994)
*''American Realism'' (1994)
*''Art Today'' (1995)
*''Panayiotis Kalorkoti
Panayiotis Kalorkoti (born 11 April 1957, Cyprus) is a British artist. He works primarily in acrylics and watercolour, and has also produced drawings, etchings, screenprints, lithographs and monotypes. His work is figurative and features bri ...
, Reflections of Grizedale (Acrylics, Watercolours, Etchings)'' (1995)
*''Visual Arts in the 20th Century'' (1996)
*''Leonardo Nierman: 1987–1994 Painting/Sculpture/Tapestry'' (1996)
*'' Albert Paley'' (1996)
*''Ars Erotica: An Arousing History of Erotic Art'' (1997)
*''Dunbar Mining The Surfaces'' (1997)
*''Glenys Barton'' (1997; with Adrian Flowers and Robin Gibson)
*''Impressionist Women: Reality Observed'' (1997)
*''Adam: The Male Figure in Art'' (1998)
*'' Chadwick'' (1998)
*''Zoo: Animals in Art'' (1998)
*''Lives of the Great 20th Century Artists'' (1999)
*''Sean Henry – the Centre of the Universe'' (1999; with Beatrice F. Buscaroli)
*''Women and Art: Contested Territory'' (1999), with Judy Chicago
2000 to present
*''Judy Chicago: An American Vision'' (2000)
*''Flesh and Stone'' (2000)
*''Sergio Ceccotti'', Editions Lachenal & Ritter, Paris, 2001.
*''Art Tomorrow'' (2002)
*''Roberto Marquez'' (2002)
*''David Remfry: Dancers'' (2003; with Dore Ashton
Dore Ashton (May 21, 1928 – January 30, 2017) was a writer, professor and critic on modern and contemporary art.
Biography
Ashton was born in Newark, New Jersey on May 21, 1928. She was the author or editor of more than thirty books on art, in ...
and Carter Ratcliff
Carter Ratcliff (born 1941 in Seattle, Washington) is an American art critic, writer and poet. His books on art include "John Singer Sargent" (Abbeville Press, 1982); "Robert Longo" ( Rizzoli, 1985); "The Fate of a Gesture: Jackson Pollock and Post ...
)
*''Color of Time: The Photographs of Sean Scully'' (2004; with Arthur C. Danto
Arthur Coleman Danto (January 1, 1924 – October 25, 2013) was an American art critic, philosopher, and professor at Columbia University. He was best known for having been a long-time art critic for ''The Nation'' and for his work in philosoph ...
and Mia Fineman)
*'' Censoring the Body'' (2007) ()
*''Byzantium & Beyond: The Paintings of Dave Pearson'' (2012; with Margaret Mytton)
*
*''Amazonia Imagined (2016)
*''Pop Expressionism (2016)
*''Steven Heffer; A Very British Modernist (2016)
*''Painting with Both Hands (2017)
*''New Dimensions in Art (2017)
References
External links
Biography
LibraryThing author profile
Long interview, 2017
Edward Lucie-Smith papers
at the University of Maryland libraries
The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an o ...
*Materials related to Lucie-Smith can be found in the Turret Books records at the University of Maryland libraries
The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an o ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucie-Smith, Edward
1933 births
Living people
People from Kingston, Jamaica
People educated at The King's School, Canterbury
Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
Writers from London
British art critics
British art historians
British biographers
British male poets
British art curators
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
The London Magazine people
Male biographers