British art critic and curator (1942–2021)
Guy Anthony Baliol Brett (1942–2021) was an English art critic, writer and curator. He was noted for a personal vision, particularly of cultural production of an experimental character. He is known for the promotion of
Latin American artists , and for drawing attention to
kinetic art during the 1960s in Europe and Latin America.
Life
He was the son of
Lionel Brett, 4th Viscount Esher and his wife Helena Christian Pike, a painter. He was educated at
Eton College .
[1]
Brett began his writing career with art criticism for
The Guardian (1963–1964). In 1964 he started his publishing connection with the Signals Newsbulletin .
[2] He was art critic for
The Times from 1964 to 1975.
[3] In 1974 Brett went to
Hu County (Huxian) in the
People's Republic of China to meet artists, in connection with an official exhibition Peasant Painters of Hu County . He was then employed by the British
Arts Council to write English text and a catalogue for the show. John Higgins of The Times not long after detected a political streak in Brett's journalism, and dismissed him.
[4] Brett was Visual Arts Editor of
City Limits from 1981 to 1983.
[5]
In 1979–80, Brett taught as guest lecturer at
Goldsmiths College in London.
[6] He died in 2021 of Parkinson's disease and pneumonia, survived by his wife and children.
[1]
Gallerist and curator
Brett early found a direction with his involvement in the gallery Signals London (active 1964–6).
[1] There a group of kinetic artists formed, brought together around Brett,
David Medalla and
Paul Keeler . The gallery grew out of the Centre for Advanced Creative Study (CACS), run in 1964 in
Cornwall Gardens , London, from the flat shared by Keeler and Medalla.
[7] Supported also by
Gustav Metzger and
Marcello Salvadori , CACS moved in November 1964 to premises at 39
Wigmore Street owned by Paul's father Charles, renamed as Signals London.
[8]
[9] It took that name from works of
kinetic sculpture by
Takis .
[7] Signals showed
Sérgio de Camargo ,
Lygia Clark ,
Li Yuan-chia ,
Hélio Oiticica ,
Jesús Rafael Soto and
Mira Schendel , as well as Takis. When Signals closed in 1966 it left some legacy of artists with the
Indica Gallery of
John Dunbar and
Barry Miles .
[10]
It was meeting Camargo in Paris in 1964 that led Brett to write on
Brazilian art . He started to correspond with Schendel in 1965.
[11] That year, Brett and Keeler met Hélio Oiticica in
Rio de Janeiro . The plan to mount a solo show for him survived the closure of Signals. In 1969 Brett gave major support to Oiticica by curating in London, at the
Whitechapel Gallery , an exhibition of his work dubbed by the artist the "Whitechapel Experiment", though officially it was "Eden".
[12]
[13]
In Motion (1966) was an Arts Council-funded touring kinetic art exhibition, curated by Brett, his first large show. Works were included by Clark, Medalla, Takis,
Pol Bury and
Jean Tinguely .
[14] With
Vicente Todolí he co-curated the
Tate Modern 2008/9 exhibition for
Cildo Meireles .
[15]
Activist
Brett was co-founder in the 1970s of the group
Artists for Democracy (AFD), following the
1973 Chilean coup d'état .
[1] The other founding members in 1973–4 were
John Dugger , David Medalla and
Cecilia Vicuña . One of the participants was
Rasheed Araeen .
[16] An AFD exhibition in 1974 received backing from the Chilean academic and diplomat Álvaro Bunster,
Harald Edelstam and
Judith Hart .
[17] It was at an AFD meeting in 1976 that
Gavin Jantjes met
Barry Barker of the
Institute of Contemporary Arts and was able to exhibit there.
[18] Brett himself met Alejandra Altamirano at an AFD event in 1974 — they were married in 1978.
[1]
Works
Kinetic Art: the Language of Movement (1968)
Peasant Paintings from Hu County, Shensi Province, China (1976), editor Hugh Shaw
[19]
Through Our Own Eyes: Popular Art and Modern History (1986)
Transcontinental (1990).
[20] For Brett's exhibition Transcontinental: Nine Latin American Artists at the
Ikon Gallery and
Cornerhouse , including works by
Waltércio Caldas ,
Juan Davila ,
Roberto Evangelista ,
Jac Leirner ,
Cildo Meireles and
Tunga .
[21] The book covers also
Eugenio Dittborn ,
Victor Grippo and
Regina Vater .
[20]
Exploding Galaxies: The Art of David Medalla (1995)
Mona Hatoum (1997)
Force Fields: An Essay on the Kinetic Art (2000), for the show Force Fields: Phases of the Kinetic he curated at the
Hayward Gallery .
[1]
Li Yuan-chia: tell me what is not said yet (2001)
Carnival of Perception: Selected Writings on Art (2004)
Brasil Experimental: Arte/Vida Proposições e Paradoxos (2005)
Oiticica in London (2007)
The Crossing of Innumerable Paths: Essays on Art (2019)
[22]
Takis (2019), Tate Modern exhibition book, curator with Michael Wellen
[23]
Brett wrote further monographic essays on artists. One on Rasheed Araeen appeared as introduction to Araeen's Making Myself Visible (1984).
[24] Others treated included
Derek Boshier ,
[25] Lygia Clark,
Rose Finn-Kelcey ,
[26]
Brion Gysin ,
[27]
Susan Hiller ,
[28]
Tina Keane ,
[29]
Ghisha Koenig ,
[30]
Lygia Pape
[31] and
Aubrey Williams .
[32] He contributed to the short-lived magazine Black Phoenix in 1978 run by Araeen and
Mahmood Jamal , and then its successor
Third Text edited by Araeen from 1987.
[33]
Notes
^
a
b
c
d
e
f Asbury, Michael (30 March 2021).
"Guy Brett obituary" . The Guardian .
^ Boshier, Rosa (17 February 2021).
"Rosa Boshier remembers Guy Brett" . www.artforum.com .
^ Harris, Gareth (4 February 2021).
" 'Constantly curious, uninterested in the market-led view': pioneering curator and writer Guy Brett has died, aged 78" . The Art Newspaper - International art news and events .
^ Barnes, Amy Jane (15 April 2016).
Museum Representations of Maoist China: From Cultural Revolution to Commie Kitsch . Routledge. p. 111.
ISBN
978-1-317-09301-5 .
^ Brett, Guy (2004). Carnival of Perception: Selected Writings on Art . Institute of International Visual Arts. p. 258.
ISBN
978-1-899846-34-4 .
^ Greenberger, Alex (3 February 2021).
"Guy Brett, Influential Curator and Critic Who Expanded Art History, Has Died at 78" . ARTnews.com .
^
a
b Dean, Martin (15 March 2018).
"Experimental Art and the Story of Signals London" . southebys.com .
^ Applin, Jo; Spencer, Catherine; Tobin, Amy (14 December 2017).
London Art Worlds: Mobile, Contingent, and Ephemeral Networks, 1960–1980 . Penn State Press. pp. 65–66.
ISBN
978-0-271-08134-2 .
^ London, Signals (1966).
3 + 1: At Signals London, 39 Wigmore Street, W1 from April 5 to May 14 1966 : Exhibition Organised by Paul Keeler and Anthony de Kerdrel . Signals London.
^ Tickner, Lisa (7 July 2020).
London's New Scene: Art and Culture in the 1960s . Paul Mellon Centre BA. p. 81.
ISBN
978-1-913107-10-9 .
^
"Ativamente o vazio · ICAA Documents Project · ICAA/MFAH" . icaa.mfah.org .
^ Small, Irene (3 February 2016).
Hélio Oiticica: Folding the Frame . University of Chicago Press. p. 104.
ISBN
978-0-226-26016-7 .
^ Posso, Karl (2013).
"An Ethics of Displaying Affection: Hélio Oiticica's Expressions of Joy and Togetherness" . Portuguese Studies . 29 (1): 49.
doi :
10.5699/portstudies.29.1.0044 .
ISSN
0267-5315 .
JSTOR
10.5699/portstudies.29.1.0044 .
S2CID
151755662 .
^
"Guy Brett, 1942–2021" . artreview.com .
^
"Guy Brett, Contributors to Frieze" . www.frieze.com .
^ Martin, Courtney J. (2010).
"Rasheed Araeen, Live Art, and Radical Politics in Britain" . Getty Research Journal (2): 121 note 16.
ISSN
1944-8740 .
JSTOR
23005411 .
^ Jones, Ann (2014). "A 'roll call' of the labour movement: Harnessing labour participation".
No Truck with the Chilean Junta! . ANU Press. p. 70 note 27.
ISBN
978-1-925021-53-0 .
JSTOR
j.ctt13www2d.7 .
^ Young, Allison K. (2017).
"Visualizing Apartheid Abroad: Gavin Jantjes's Screenprints of the 1970s" . Art Journal . 76 (3/4): 16.
doi :
10.1080/00043249.2017.1412742 .
ISSN
0004-3249 .
JSTOR
45142664 .
S2CID
192273662 .
^ Brett, Guy (1976).
Peasant Paintings from Hu County, Shensi Province, China . Arts Council of Great Britain.
ISBN
978-0-7287-0103-8 .
^
a
b Brett, Guy; Menezes, Luzinete; Filho, Paulo Venancio; Gallery, Ikon (1990).
Transcontinental: An Investigation of Reality : Nine Latin American Artists, Waltercio Caldas ... Verso.
ISBN
978-0-86091-511-9 .
^ Caballero, Germán Rubiano (2001).
Art of Latin America, 1981-2000 . IDB. p. 15.
ISBN
978-1-931003-02-5 .
^ Brett, Guy (2019). The Crossing of Innumerable Paths: Essays on Art . Ridinghouse.
ISBN
978-1-909932-53-1 .
^ Brett, Guy; Wellen, Michael (29 October 2019). Takis . Harry N. Abrams.
ISBN
978-1-84976-631-9 .
^ Fok, Silvia (2013).
Life and Death: Art and the Body in Contemporary China . Intellect Books. p. 133 note 120.
ISBN
978-1-84150-626-5 .
^ Boshier, Derek; Herbert, Lynn McLanahan; Mayo, Marti (1995).
Derek Boshier: The Texas Years . Contemporary Arts Museum.
ISBN
978-0-936080-37-6 .
^ Finn-Kelcey, Rose; Brett, Guy (2012).
Rose Finn-Kelcey . Ridinghouse.
ISBN
978-1-905464-68-5 .
^ Gysin, Brion; Brett, Guy (2003).
Brion Gysin: Tuning in to the Multimedia Age . Thames & Hudson.
ISBN
978-0-500-28438-4 .
^ Brett, Guy (1991). "Susan Hiller's shadowland". Art in America . 70 (April).
^ Curtis, David (1995).
A Directory of British Film & Video Artists . John Libbey Media, Faculty of Humanities, University of Luton. pp. 91–2.
ISBN
978-1-86020-003-8 .
^ Brett, Guy (1986). Ghisha Koenig : sculpture 1968-86 . London: Arts Council of Great Britain.
ISBN
9780728704961 .
^ Pape, Lygia; Brett, Guy (2001).
Lygia Pape . Americas Society.
ISBN
978-1-879128-24-8 .
^ Brett, Guy (September 1999). "A tragic excitement: The work of Aubrey Williams". Third Text . 13 (48): 29–44.
doi :
10.1080/09528829908576806 .
^ Allen, Gwen (2011).
Artists' Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art . MIT Press. p. 247.
ISBN
978-0-262-01519-6 .
External links