Guy Brett

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. Brett began his writing career with art criticism for The Guardian (1963–1964). In 1964 he started his publishing connection with the Signals Newsbulletin. He was art critic for The Times from 1964 to 1975. 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. Brett was Visual Arts Editor of City Limits from 1981 to 1983. In 1979–80, Brett taught as guest lecturer at Goldsmiths College in London. He died in 2021 of Parkinson's disease and pneumonia, survived by his wife and children.