The Spectacle of Skill
  • Published: 1 April 2017
  • ISBN: 9780307385994
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 688
  • RRP: $49.99

The Spectacle of Skill

Selected Writings of Robert Hughes

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A selection of the best writing by Robert Hughes--the most important art and culture critic of our time--including never-before-seen pages from his unfinished second memoir.

Over the course of his distinguished career, Robert Hughes wrote with brutal honesty about art, architecture, culture, religion—and himself. The Spectacle of Skill brings together some of his most unforgettable pieces, culled from nine of his most widely read and important books, alongside never-before-published pages from his unfinished second volume of memoirs. Showcasing Hughes’s enormous range, this indispensable anthology offers a uniquely cohesive view of both the critic and the man.
  • Published: 1 April 2017
  • ISBN: 9780307385994
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 688
  • RRP: $49.99
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About the author

Robert Hughes

Robert Hughes, art critic of Time magazine and twice winner of the American College Art Association's F. J. Mather Award for distinguished criticism, is author of The Shock of the New, and of Heaven and Hell in Western Art. He is also author of the acclaimed Nothing if Not Critical, a work on Frank Auerbach; Barcelona, and Culture of Complaint, essays on the fraying of America. Robert Hughes died in August 2012.

Also by Robert Hughes

Things I Didn't Know
Nothing If Not Critical
Barcelona
The Fatal Shore
American Visions
See all

Praise for The Spectacle of Skill

  • "Delightful if bittersweet recollections." --Vanity Fair
  • "A generous reminder to all those familiar with Hughes's prose of just how dazzlingly he succeeded at that goal, and it will introduce newcomers to one of the great critical voices of the late 20th century." --The Christian Science Monitor
  • "Echo[es] with an erudite authority that would seem impossible to obtain in our day, and a bombast that would be unbearably rude. The combination, conveyed in a clear and entertaining prose, will feel nostalgic even to those who come to know [Hughes] only by this book." --San Francisco Chronicle
  • "A must-have item for anyone who wishes emphatically to know what is what in the here and now." --The Wall Street Journal
  • "The staggering erudition of Time art critic Hughes is on full and glorious display in this impressive collection." --Publishers Weekly (starred)

    • Praise for Robert Hughes:
  • "Hughes is the sort of ebullient writer who floods his reader with great bursting accumulations of words and gets carried away with the sheer exuberance of his narrative. It is compelling. You don't want to miss a sentence." --The Christian Science Monitor
  • "Hughes has defined himself as one of the great critics and cultural commentators of the postwar period. His brilliance lies not just in his erudition ... but also in his rugged, keen style and eye for historical and thematic detail that can lead him to gorgeous sweeps of overarching observation." --Michael Bracewell, Los Angeles Times