31 Facts About Brian Sewell

Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell Sewell was an English art critic.

Brian Sewell wrote for the Evening Standard and had an acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize.

Brian Sewell was educated at the private Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Hertfordshire.

Brian Sewell graduated in 1957 and worked at Christie's auction house, specialising in Old Master paintings and drawings.

Brian Sewell completed his National Service as a commissioned officer in the Royal Army Service Corps.

In 1979, after Blunt's exposure as the fourth man in the Cambridge spy ring, gaining much media attention, Brian Sewell assisted in sheltering him in Chiswick.

Brian Sewell won press awards including Critic of the Year, Arts Journalist of the Year, the Hawthornden Prize for Art Criticism and the Foreign Press Award in 2000.

Brian Sewell was known for his formal, old-fashioned RP diction and for his anti-populist sentiments.

Brian Sewell offended people in Gateshead by claiming an exhibition was too important to be held at the town's Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and should instead be shown to "more sophisticated" audiences in London.

Brian Sewell responded with comments about many of the signatories, describing Paley as being "the curatrix of innumerable silly little Arts Council exhibitions" and describing Whiteread as being "mortified by my dismissal of her work for the Turner Prize".

Brian Sewell suggested that art world insiders had felt embarrassed by a recent TV stunt in which he, a dealer and another critic had been shown a painting without being told that it had been painted by an elephant.

Brian Sewell described the painting as having no merit, while the other participants praised it.

Brian Sewell was strongly opinionated and was known to insult the general public for their views on art.

In 2003, Brian Sewell made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in a documentary called The Naked Pilgrim, produced by Wag TV for Channel 5.

Brian Sewell appeared as a guest film reviewer on Channel 5's Movie Lounge, where he frequently savaged films.

In Dirty Dali: A Private View on Channel 4 on 3 June 2007, Brian Sewell described his acquaintance with Salvador Dali in the late 1960s, which included lying in the foetal position without trousers in the armpit of a figure of Christ and masturbating for Dali, who pretended to take photos while fumbling in his trousers.

Brian Sewell appeared twice as panellist on the BBC's panel quiz programme Have I Got News for You and tried to teach cricketer Phil Tufnell about art in ITV's Don't Call Me Stupid.

Brian Sewell was the voice of Sir Kiftsgate in an episode of the children's cartoon The Big Knights.

Brian Sewell presented a programme on Voom HD Networks' Art Channel: Gallery HD called Brian Sewell's Grand Tour, in which he toured beautiful cities visiting museums, towns, churches, historic sites, public squares, monuments and notable architectural spots whilst meeting local residents to discuss culture and art.

Brian Sewell reflected upon the 18th century, giving the perspective of what it would have been like as a Grand Tourist.

Brian Sewell was a museum adviser in South Africa, Germany and the United States.

Brian Sewell provided voice-overs for a variety of television commercials including for the Victoria and Albert Museum and feta cheese.

Brian Sewell was an aficionado of classic cars, a fan of stock car racing and over several decades wrote extensively about cars, classic and contemporary, in the Evening Standard and elsewhere.

Brian Sewell was described as bisexual but described himself as gay, saying he knew he probably was homosexual at the age of six.

Brian Sewell claimed to have slept with over 1,000 men.

In 2011 Brian Sewell exposed the identity of his father, as revealed by his mother on her deathbed.

Brian Sewell revealed that his stepfather Robert Sewell and his mother, Mary Jessica, a publican's daughter from Camden, had admitted that Robert was not his father when he was 11, although he had already known it to be the case.

Brian Sewell died of cancer on 19 September 2015 at the age of 84 at his home in London.

The Brian Sewell Archive is held at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London.

In September 2024, as part of its inaugural weekly edition, the London Standard used artificial intelligence to write a Brian Sewell-inspired review of the National Gallery's Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition.

The Standard's interim chief executive Paul Kanareck said that the use of artificial intelligence to imitate Brian Sewell was "experimental" and had been approved by the critic's estate.