David Sylvester

Born in London, his father was a Russian-Jewish antiques dealer.{{cite web |last1=Jobey |first1=Liz |title=Obituary - David Sylvester |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/20/guardianobituaries.arts |website=The Guardian |access-date=3 June 2023 |language=English |date=20 Jun 2001}} Sylvester had trouble as a student at University College School and was thrown out of the family home. He wrote for the paper Tribune and went to Paris in 1947 where he met Alberto Giacometti, one of the strongest influences on him.

Sylvester is credited with coining the term kitchen sink originally to describe a strand of post-war British painting typified by John Bratby."[http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/k/kitchen-sink-painters Kitchen Sink art]" Tate. Retrieved 16 July 2011. Sylvester used the phrase negatively but it was widely applied to other art forms including literature and theatre.

During the 1950s, Sylvester worked with Henry Moore, Freud and Bacon but also supported Richard Hamilton and the other "Young Turks" of British Pop art. This led him to become a prominent media figure in the 1960s. During the 1960s and 1970s Sylvester occupied a number of roles at the Arts Council of Great Britain serving on advisory panels and on the main panel. He was also a trustee of the Tate Gallery, among a number of such positions. In 1969, he curated a Renoir exhibition at the Hayward Gallery for which he was assisted by a young Nicholas Serota. During the 1970s, he became interested in and collected early oriental carpets.Mills, John, Which Yet Survive. Impressions of Friends, Family and Encounters, Quartet Books, London, 2017 and in 1983, he co-curated (with Donald King of the Victoria and Albert Museum) an exhibition, The Eastern Carpet in the Western World, at the Hayward Gallery.

Sylvester was awarded a Golden Lion at the 1993 Venice Biennale for curating an exhibition of Francis Bacon's work. He was married to Pamela Briddon (three daughters; marriage dissolved).{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} He was also the father of the artist Cecily Brown with the writer Shena Mackay.{{Cite web |last=Cooke |first=Rachel |date=9 November 2008 |title=Interview: Shena Mackay |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/nov/09/interview-shena-mackay |access-date=10 October 2019 |website=The Observer}}

• King, Donald and Sylvester, David eds. The Eastern Carpet in the Western World, From the 15th to the 17th century, Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1983, {{ISBN|0-7287-0362-9}}
• David Sylvester "Interviste con artisti americani" Castelvecchi editore, 2012
• {{Cite book |last=Sylvester |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsofpetlamb00sylv |title=Memoirs of a pet lamb |date=2002 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |isbn=0701173343 |location=London |url-access=registration}}
• {{Cite book |last=Sylvester |first=David |title=Interviews with American artists |date=2001 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |isbn=070116266X |location=London}}
• {{Cite book |last=Sylvester |first=David |title=About modern art |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0300092024 |edition=2nd |location=New Haven [Conn.]}}
• {{Cite book |last=Sylvester |first=David [curated by] |title=Francis Bacon: The human body |date=1997 |publisher=Hayward Gallery |isbn=1853321753 |location=London}}
• {{Cite book |last=Sylvester |first=David |title=The brutality of fact : interviews with Francis Bacon |date=1988 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |isbn=0500274754 |edition=3rd enl. |location=New York, N.Y.}}
• {{Cite book |title=René Magritte : catalogue raisonné |date=1992 |publisher=Flammarion [u.a.] |isbn=9782080125071 |editor-last=Sylvester |editor-first=David |location=Paris}}
• {{Cite book |last=Sylvester |first=David ; with texts by Philip French, Christopher Frayling, Ken |title=Moonraker, Strangelove and other celluloid dreams : the visionary art of Ken Adam |date=1999 |publisher=Serpentine Gallery |isbn=1870814274 |location=London}}
• {{Cite book |last=Serota |first=Nicholas, intro |title=Looking at modern art : in memory of David Sylvester ; [published to accompany an exhibition at Tate Modern, 17 January - 24 March 2002] |last2=Sylvester |first2=David (extracts from his writings) |date=2002 |publisher=Tate Publ. |isbn=978-1854374325 |location=London}}
• {{Cite book |last=Sylvester |first=David |title=Jasper Johns flags, 1955-1994 |date=1996 |publisher=Anthony d'Offay Gallery |isbn=0947564705 |location=London}}
• {{Cite book |last=Sylvester |first=David |title=Looking at Giacometti |date=1995 |publisher=Pimlico |isbn=978-0712674614 |edition=Pimlico |location=London}}

{{Reflist|1}}

• [https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,,509620,00.html Guardian obituary June 20, 2001]
• David Sylvester, '[https://www.theguardian.com/greatinterviews/story/0,,2154777,00.html Interviews with Francis Bacon (1963, 1966, 1979)]', The Guardian, 13 September 2007
• John Tusa. '[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/johntusainterview/sylvester_transcript.shtml Interview with David Sylvester]', BBC Radio 3
• {{Cite web |title=David Sylvester – Portraits held in the Collection |url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06172/david-sylvester?search=sas&sText=david+sylvester |access-date=29 September 2016 |website=National Portrait Gallery}}

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Category:1924 births

Category:2001 deaths

Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Category:English art critics

Category:English people of Russian-Jewish descent

Category:People educated at University College School