It is the end of an era at The Guardian with news reaching us that Adrian Searle, the UK paper’s chief art critic, is bowing out after more than 30 years wielding his considered, sometimes acerbic yet hugely influential pen.
“Writing about art for The Guardian has been an exhilarating ride, during a period of huge social, political, cultural and technological change. It has been a privilege to be here, and especially to comment on the art I care about,” says the man who wrote of Tracey Emin’s work in the 1999 Turner Prize show at Tate Britain: “There’s nothing to see in your work but you, your mood swings, your sentimentality and your nostalgia.”
On Doris Salcedo’s epochal Shibboleth crack in the floor of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2007, Searle, who was formerly a painter, stated: “Imagine infants—invariably amateur potholers—with their heads wedged in the floor. This would not be funny.”
Searle’s final article, a look back at the past 30 years and what he’s learned, will appear on 1 April. Jonathan Jones is still on the Guardian art beat along with other regular critics Charlotte Jansen, Chloë Ashby and Eddy Frankel (formerly of this parish).
