Sarah Kent
Encyclopedia : S : SA : SAR : Sarah Kent
Sarah Kent is the art editor of the weekly London "what's on" guide Time Out, and an influential figure in the contemporary British art scene. She was an early supporter of the Young British Artists in general, and Tracey Emin in particular, helping her to get early exposure. This has led to polarised reactions of praise and opposition for Kent. She adopts a feminist stance and has stated her position to be that of "a spokesperson, especially for women artists, in a country that is essentially hostile to contemporary art."Buck, Louisa (2000). Moving Targets 2: A User's Guide to British Art Now. Tate Gallery Publishing. ISBN 1854373161
Career
Sarah Kent studied painting at the Slade School of Art and worked as an artist until 1977. She then became Exhibitions Director at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) for two years, and also started writing for Time Out. At the ICA she staged exhibitions by Andy Warhol, Allen Jones and Christo, as well as feminist artist Alexis Hunter. Another show was of satirical art, Berlin a Critical View: Ugly Realism. Her own work changed from painting to photography, primarily of male nudes.She became art editor of Time Out and continues to write reviews for it. She is now a well-known figure in the arts in London, also appearing on radio and TV shows. She also works in a freelance capacity as an editor and critic, and has provided essays, catalogues and books for the Saatchi Gallery and White Cube gallery. She is the editor of Shark-Infested Waters : The Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90s (Zwemmer, 1994).
She was an early advocate for the Young British Artists (YBAs), also known as Britart, and a strong supporter of Tracey Emin, helping to get her early exposure. Kent and Matthew Collings have been described as "the parents of the popularization process having audiences approaching half a million each" of "the explosion of art into mainstream culture in nineties London."["Media Guy" by Merlin Carpenter] Retrieved March 28, 2006
The connection with the YBAs has inevitably attracted criticism similar to that which is directed at the artists:
- Many writers involved in the post-modern world deal in a flip and ironic way with both theory and criticism, for example, Jean Baudrillard or the London-based critic and reviewer, Sarah Kent, so that the line between serious theory and the entertainment industry are blurred. I would define the ironic as a refusal to state a sincere political or ethical stance, or if in stating a stance, to continually undermine this, or to change it as suits. It is the opposite of what used to be called 'engaged' or 'committed' or 'sincere'.["Do You Wanna Be in My Gang" by Liz Ellis] Retrieved March 28, 2006
Advocating Britart, she is on the opposite side of the fence from the traditionally-orientated critic, Brian Sewell. This had led to personal comments in the media. In 1995, when asked about a suitable Christmas present for him (he keeps dogs), she replied:
- I'd like to give him a large tank of formaldehyde in which he can pickle his bitches[“And, on this page, Rosanna Greenstreet asked some movers and shakers “, ‘’The Independent’’, December 24, 1995]] Retrieved from findarticles.com April 2, 2006
- I have made several wills, the first as a young soldier, all of them the precautionary wills of those who do not think of death as immediately relevant. Even on the night before my rib-cage was sawn open and my heart re-plumbed I was prepared to make a joke and bequeathed my eyes to Sarah Kent, the gushing art critic of Time Out, who is not blind but cannot see. [“A Dying Wish”, Brian Sewell, ‘’The Evening Standard’’, July 29, 2003] Retrieved April 2, 2006
- Damien Hirst got his fish in a tank
- some say it's art others think it's wank
- Sarah Kent says he's doing quite well
- you gotta make your art and you gotta sell[Art or Arse, lyrics. stuckism.com] Retrieved March 28, 2006
In 1992 she was a jurist on the Turner Prize panel chaired by (Sir) Nicholas Serota. The other members were Marie-Claude Beaud, Director, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, Robert Hopper, Director, Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, and Howard Karshan. The winner was Grenville Davey, and the other nominees Damien Hirst, David Tremlett and Alison Wilding.["Turner Prize History", Tate website] Retrieved March 28, 2006
In October 2002, the art "insider" news site artrumour.com published a survey of the number of times different galleries had been reviewed in Time Out over the preceding two years. [“Kent-o-meter”, artrumour.com, October 18, 2002] Retrieved March 30, 2006 They divided this into “leagues” based on football leagues. Top of the list with the most reviews in the "Premier League" were:
- White Cube 26
- Tate Gallery 25
- Barbican 14
- Royal Academy 14
- Sadie Coles 14
- Lisson Gallery 12
- Photographers Gallery 12
- National Portrait Gallery 12
- ICA 12
- Anthony Wilkinson 12
- Stephen Friedman 12
- Serpentine Gallery 11
- Mobile Home 10
- Modern Art 10
- Camden Arts Centre 10
- South London Gallery 10
- National Gallery 10
- Hayward Gallery 10
- Gagosian Gallery 10
Judgements
- On Gary Wragg (1983):
- Gary Wragg’s huge terra cotta canvases stand out. Sketchy areas of black, white and grey create ambiguously transparent readings of space while chalk and paint lines suggest diagrammatic representations- perhaps of Tai Chi movements[Sarah Kent, ‘’Time Out’’, 1983] Retrieved April 2, 2006 from garywragg.co.uk
See also
- Time Out
- Other contemporary UK art critics
References
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.