Who was Robert Hughes? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Australian Celebrities Born In July

Also Known As: Robert Studley Forrest Hughes

Died At Age: 74

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Danne Patricia Emerson (m. 1967–1981), Doris Downes (m. 2001–2012), Victoria Hughes (m. 1981–2001)

father: Geoffrey Forrest Hughes

mother: Margaret Eyre Sealy

siblings: Thomas Eyre Forrest Hughes

children: Danton Hughes, Fielder Douglas Jewett, Freeborn Garrettson Jewett IV

Writers Art Critics

Died on: August 6, 2012

place of death: The Bronx, New York

City: Sydney, Australia

More Facts

education: Saint Ignatius College, University of Sydney

awards: 1982 – Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism
given by the College Art Association of America.
1985 – second Frank Jewett Mather Award

1988 – named recipient of the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award.
1988 – W. H. Smith Literary Award for The Fatal Shore
2000 – London Sunday Times Writer of the Year
2007 – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for non-fiction
2009 –

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Childhood & Early Life

Robert Hughes was born on 28 July 1938, in Sydney to Geoffrey Forrest Hughes and Margaret Eyre Sealy. His father was a pilot in the WWI and a lawyer. He died of lung cancer when Hughes was only 12 years old.

While he was growing up, Hughes was expected to become a lawyer as his father and grandfather both were prominent lawyers. He attended St. Ignatius College in Riverview, Australia, and later attended the University of Sydney.

At the University of Sydney Hughes pursued art and architecture, but dropped out of college soon after to take up a job as a cartoonist for the periodical, ‘The Observer’. He was made the art critic at the magazine.

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Career

While still working as a art critic with ‘The Observer’, Hughes wrote a piece on the history of Australian painting—‘The Art of Australia’ in 1966. He also contributed to the ‘Oz’ magazine, ‘The Nation’, and ‘the Sunday Mirror’.

Around the same time, he travelled to Europe and settled permanently in London in 1965. It was in London that he wrote for ‘The Spectator’, ‘The Daily Telegraph’, ‘The Times’’, the London-version of ‘Oz’ and ‘The Observer’.

In 1970, Hughes moved to New York, when he was recruited as an art critic by the ‘TIME’ magazine—which he described as a ‘shot in the dark’ both by him and the magazine.

Things went well at the ‘TIME’ and Hughes was hired as a commentator on ABC’s news magazine program ‘20/20’ in 1978. But after the recording of first tape, he was fired and replaced by veteran TV host Hugh Downs.

In 1980, he co-produced, with German producer Reiner Moritz and Lorna Pegram, BBC eight-part series ‘The Shock of the New’. It was based on his book with the same title; the series looked into the development of Modern art.

Hughes published his next book ‘The Fatal Shore’ in 1987 - a book that reviewed the history of British penal colonies and early European settlement of Australia. The book soon became an international bestseller.

In 1997, another of Hughes’ television series ‘American Visions’ released, which evaluated the history of American art since Revolution.

This was followed by documentaries in the 2000s––‘Australian: Beyond the Fatal Shore (2000)’, which was a series of ruminations on modern Australia, and ‘Goya: Crazy Like a Genius (2002), a documentary on Francisco Goya—his favorite artist.

Towards the end of his life, he created a one-hour long update to ‘The Shock of the New’ called ‘The New Shock of the New (2004)’ and published the first part of his memoir, ‘Things I didn’t Know (2006)’.

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Major Works

‘The Shock of the New’, created by Hughes in 1980 and produced by BBC, is Hughes’ most prominent work. It was based on the development of modern art since the Impressionists and was accompanied by a book with the same title.

Awards & Achievements

Hughes was honored with accolades like: Frank Jewett Mather Award (1982), Golden Plate Award (1988), Officer of the Order of Australia (1991), Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996), Grierson Award (2009), International Emmy Award (2009), etc.

Personal Life & Legacy

Hughes was married to Danne Emerson from 1967-1981. The couple met in London and explored the counterculture, of the 1960s, of exploring drug use and sexual freedom together. They had a son Danton Hughes.

He got married for the second time to Victoria Whistler in California. They remained married from 1981-1996.

Hughes third marriage took place in 2001, to Doris Downes, an American artist and art director. The couple remained married until his death. He became stepfather to Downes’ sons - Freeborn Garrettson Jewett IV and Fielder Douglas Jewett.

He died at Calvary Hospital in The Bronx, New York, in 2012 after suffering from a long illness.

Trivia

Hughes faced a near-fatal car accident in south of Broome, Western Australia in 1999. He was driving on the wrong side of the road, while returning from a fishing trip, and collided with another car. He was in coma for 5 weeks. He, ultimately, pled guilty to dangerous driving in 2003 and was fined 2,500 Australian dollars.

Hughes' son, Danton Hughes, a sculptor, committed suicide in 2002.

Robert Hughes Biography