Andrew Graham-Dixon
Andrew Graham-Dixon | |
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Andrew Graham-Dixon in 2012 | |
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London, United Kingdom | 26 December 1960
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Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon (born 26 December 1960) is a British art historian and broadcaster.
Life and work
Birth
Graham-Dixon is a son of the barrister Anthony Graham-Dixon and Suzanne "Sue" (née Villar, 1931–2010), a publicist for music and opera companies.
Education
Graham-Dixon was educated at the independent Westminster School, where he was pushed to get into a well-paid job by his father and not waste time learning at school. This meant he finished his O Levels at age 14 and A Levels at age 16. He continued his education at Christ Church, Oxford, where he read English. He graduated in 1981, before pursuing doctoral studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.
Career
Graham-Dixon began work as a reviewer for the weekly Sunday Correspondent, before becoming the chief art critic of The Independent newspaper where he remained until 1998. Early in his career (in 1987, 1988 and 1989) he won the Arts Journalist of the Year Award three years in a row. As of 2005 he is the chief art critic of The Sunday Telegraph. Since 2004, he has also been a contributor to the BBC Two's The Culture Show on a variety of subjects, and is often the main presenter of the programme.[1]
In 1992, Graham-Dixon won the first prize in the Reportage section in the Montreal World Film Festival for a documentary film about Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa. He has since gone on to present several BBC documentary series on art, including A History of British Art (1996), Renaissance (1999), Caravaggio (2002)[2] The Secret of Drawing (2005),[3] The Battle for British Art (2007),[4] The Art of Eternity (2007),[5] The Art of Spain (2008),[6] The Art of Russia (2009), The Art of Germany (2010), Art of America (2011)[7] and Art of China (2014).
He has also presented programmes on subjects other than art, such as I, Samurai (2006)[8] and The Real Casino Royale for the BBC and 100% English (2006) for Channel 4. In 2010, he interviewed John Lydon for a Culture Show special about Public Image Ltd.[9]
Graham-Dixon also wrote and presented the BBC documentary Who Killed Caravaggio?, broadcast on BBC 4 in 2010. The same year, his biography of Caravaggio was published as Caravaggio: A Life Sacred And Profane.
"The Tate Wars" with R.B. Kitaj
In 1994 American expatriate R.B. Kitaj had a retrospective at the Tate Gallery in London. Graham-Dixon, and many other London art critics wrote personal, vicious attacks against the artist. Kitaj blamed the death of his wife, artist Sandra Fisher, on the critic's handiwork. Graham-Dixon's own paper, The "Independent" said in an obituary for Fisher: "The fierce antagonism of newspaper critics towards Kitaj's recent late retrospective—in contrast to the response of an admiring public—made for a stressful last summer for a woman who will be remembered by many for her almost saintly happiness." Kitaj's friend Sandy Wilson penned a letter to Graham-Dixon and other critics questioning the personal and vitriolic nature of their criticism, which many artists like David Hockney and Peter Blake signed. Lucian Freud commented on the letter: "Though it's often a good idea to write to someone in order to object, agree, question or ridicule anything they may have said or done...I feel it pointless to gang up on a third-rate critic when you don't consider him seriously. As they wisely say in Ireland: what do you expect from a pig but a a grunt?" [10]
Honorary Doctorate
Andrew Graham-Dixon was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Plymouth University in 2010.
Supporter of Young British Artists
He was an early supporter of the later-to-be Young British Artists (YBA) artists. In 1990 he wrote:
Goldsmiths' graduates are unembarrassed about promoting themselves and their work: some of the most striking exhibitions in London over the past few months—"The East Country Yard Show", or "Gambler", both staged in docklands—have been independently organised and funded by Goldsmiths' graduates as showcases for their work. This has given them a reputation for pushiness, yet it should also be said that in terms of ambition, attention to display and sheer bravado there has been little to match such shows in the country's established contemporary art institutions. They were far superior, for instance, to any of the contemporary art shows that have been staged by the Liverpool Tate in its own multi-million-pound dockland site.[11]
Personal life
Graham-Dixon has three children and lives in Sussex.[12]
List of credits
Year | Title | Notes | |
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1992 | Billboard Project, TheThe Billboard Project | ||
1992 | Raft of the Medusa, TheThe Raft of the Medusa | First Prize in the Reportage Section of the Montreal International Film and Television Festival | |
1996 | History of British Art, AA History of British Art | Six-part series Nominated for BAFTA and RTS awards | |
1996 | Hogarth's Progress | ||
1999 | Renaissance | Six-part series Nominated for RTS award | |
2001 | Art That Shook the World | Series 1 episode 1 "Monet's Impression Sunrise" | |
2002 | Secret Lives of the Artists | Three-part series on Giorgio Vasari | |
2002 | Elgin Marbles, TheThe Elgin Marbles | Drama-documentary on the Elgin Marbles | |
2003 | 1000 Ways of Getting Drunk in England | ||
2004–present | Culture Show, TheThe Culture Show | ||
2005 | Secret of Drawing, TheThe Secret of Drawing | Four-part series | |
2006 | I, Samurai | ||
2006 | Real Casino Royale, TheThe Real Casino Royale | ||
2006 | 100% English | ||
2007 | Battle for British Art, TheThe Battle for British Art | ||
2007 | Art of Eternity, TheThe Art of Eternity | Three-part series on Christian art Long-listed for Grierson Awards | |
2008 | Art of Spain | Three-part series | |
2008 | Travels with Vasari | Two-part documentary exploring the life and work of the artist, architect and chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari. | |
2009 | Art of Russia | Three-part series | |
2010 | Art of Germany | Three-part series | |
2011 | Treasures of Heaven[13] | Documentary about the British Museum exhibition on relics and reliquaries | |
2011 | I Never Tell Anybody Anything: The Life and Art of Edward Burra | Documentary | |
2011 | Art of America | Three-part series | |
2012 | Sicily Unpacked | Three-part series presented with Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli. | |
2013 | Italy Unpacked series 1 | Three-part series presented with Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli. | |
2013 | The High Art of the Low Countries | Three-part series | |
2014 | Italy Unpacked series 2 | Three-part series presented with Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli. | |
2014 | Art of China | Three-part series | |
2014 | The Art of Gothic: Britains Midnight Hour | Three-part series | |
2014 | Viking Art | Published by BBC and broadcast as part of BBC The Culture Show series | |
2014 | British Art at War | Three-part series | |
2015 | Italy Unpacked series 3 | Three-part series presented with Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli. | |
2015 | Secrets of the Mona Lisa | Documentary | |
2016 | Art of Scandinavia | Three-part series |
Bibliography
- Howard Hodgkin. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994 (ISBN 0-50027769-9); revised, 2001 (ISBN 0-50009298-2).
- John Virtue: new paintings. Bristol: Arnolfini, 1995. ISBN 978-0-907738-41-1.
- Paper Museum: writings about painting, mostly. London: HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 0-00-255557-3.
- A History of British Art. London: BBC, 1996. ISBN 0-563-37044-0.
- Renaissance. London: BBC, 1999. ISBN 0-563-38396-8.
- In the Picture: The Year Through Art. London: Allen Lane, 2002. ISBN 978-0-7139-9675-3.
- Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008. ISBN 978-0-297-85365-7.
- Caravaggio: A Life Sacred And Profane. London: Allen Lane, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7139-9674-6.
DVD releases
- Art of Spain (2010)
- Art of Germany (2011)
- Art of China (2015)
- Art of America (2014)
- Italy Unpacked (2014)
- Sicily Unpacked (2014)
References
- ↑ Biography. Andrew Graham Dixon. Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
- ↑ Review in the Daily Telegraph of the Caravaggio BBC TV series
- ↑ The Secret of Drawing: BBC FOUR webpage. Four episodes, broadcast on October 2005
- ↑ The Battle for British art: BBC FOUR webpage
- ↑ The Art of Eternity: BBC FOUR webpage. Three episodes, broadcast December 2007
- ↑ The Art of Spain: BBC Press Office.
- ↑
- ↑ BBC TV website on I, Samurai
- ↑ "The Culture Show, John Lydon Special". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/feb/10/rb-kitaj-obsessions-tate-war
- ↑ Andrew Graham-Dixon, "The Midas Touch?: Graduates of Goldsmiths' School of Art dominate the current British art scene," The Independent, 31 July 1990, p. 13.
- ↑ Biography. Andrew Graham Dixon. Retrieved on 2016-07-22.
- ↑ Treasures of Heaven at BBC Programmes
External links
- Official website
- Andrew Graham-Dixon at the Internet Movie Database
- I Never Tell Anybody Anything: The Life and Art of Edward Burra