Richard Dorment, (born 1946) is a British
art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
and exhibition organiser. He worked as chief art critic for ''
The Daily Telegraph'' from 1986 until 2015.
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Early life
Dorment was born in the United States in 1946. He graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1968[Who's Who (2015)] where he studied art history. His post-graduate work was at Columbia University where he was a faculty fellow from 1968 until 1972. He completed his doctorate at Columbia University in 1975 with a dissertation on Edward Burne-Jones's mosaics for the American Church in Rome.[
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Career
Dorment worked as assistant curator in the department of European painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
.[ He then moved to London where he wrote a ''Catalogue of British Painting in the Philadelphia Museum of Art'' in 1986 and a biography of the British sculptor ''Alfred Gilbert''.][ He became chief art critic for '' The Daily Telegraph'' in 1986.] After his retirement in 2015, he published a collection of his reviews entitled ''Exhibitionist: Writing about Art for a Daily Newspaper'' in 2016.
In 1989, Dorment served on the judging panel for the Turner Prize. He has also been a member of the Advisory Committee of the Government Art Collection, a member of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art, and a member of the British Council's Advisory Committee for the Visual Arts. He was a trustee of the Wallace Collection and has been a trustee of the Watts Gallery since 1996. Dorment is a contributor for '' The New York Review of Books'', and has also written for '' The Burlington Magazine'', '' The Times Literary Supplement'', and '' Literary Review''.
In 2009, he wrote the first of a series of articles in ''The New York Review of Books'' calling into question the methods and decisions of the Andy Warhol Foundation's Art Authentication Board. In 2011, the chairman of the Andy Warhol Foundation's board of directors announced that the Art Authentication Board would close. The following year, the Foundation announced it would be selling the Warhol works it owned.
Exhibitions
In 1994 until 1995, Dorment was a co-curator for the James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...
exhibition at the Tate Gallery. He curated the Alfred Gilbert: Sculptor and Goldsmith exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
in 1986. He contributed to the Victorian High Renaissance exhibition catalogue in 1978.
Honours and awards
Dorment was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) in 2013. In the 2014 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 2014 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...
, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to the arts".
Dorment won the Hawthornden Prize for Art Criticism in Great Britain in 1992, in 2000 he was named Critic of the Year in the British Press Awards, and in 2014 his review of the reopening of the Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...
won the Holland Prize
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
.[
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Personal life
Dorment married the novelist Harriet Waugh
Harriet(t) may refer to:
* Harriet (name), a female name ''(includes list of people with the name)''
Places
*Harriet, Queensland, rural locality in Australia
* Harriet, Arkansas, unincorporated community in the United States
* Harriett, Texas, ...
in 1985[ and has two children from a previous marriage.][
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Selected publications
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorment, Richard
The Daily Telegraph people
Living people
British art critics
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
1946 births
Princeton University alumni
Columbia University alumni