Dougal McKenzie, 28th April 2020
I first encountered Peter Fuller's writing as a young art student- in fact, it was only three years before his death in a car accident in 1990. The 30th anniversary of his death has prompted this short essay, it being the 28th April (which, co-incidently, is also the deathday of the painter Francis Bacon, in 1992).
*I revisited this paragraph on Tuesday 9th June, as it revolves around the most common criticism of Fuller, and it had been playing on my mind a lot. I have not re-edited this part, but do now wish I had worded it differently. What I wish to clarify here is that the criticism that existed (and still exists) of Fuller's ideological shift to the 'right' would certainly not be irrelevant it were in fact true. To the very end Fuller remained critical of Thatcherism, and in fact was quick to point out that the biggest player in the contemporary art boom of the late 1980's was Charles Saatchi, who had played such a significant part in the advertising campaigns of the Tory Party, and indeed the art trading market economy at that time. The revisionist, and what I still believe to be misguided, criticisms of Fuller's political views were wonderfully exposed by Peter Abbs in his book 'The Educational Imperative: A Defence of Socratic and Aesthetic Learning'.
https://www.routledge.com/The-Educational-Imperative-A-Defence-Of-Socratic-And-Aesthetic-Learning/Abbs/p/book/9780203046357
I first encountered Peter Fuller's writing as a young art student- in fact, it was only three years before his death in a car accident in 1990. The 30th anniversary of his death has prompted this short essay, it being the 28th April (which, co-incidently, is also the deathday of the painter Francis Bacon, in 1992).
The first thing that strikes me in returning to Fuller's writing and criticism is its range and
depth. In the same week that I am re-famiIiarising myself with it, Adrian Searle’s ‘piece’ in The Guardian (I can’t even be bothered to revisit it to get its exact point, but in general it was a self-ingratiating article on how hard it is to be an art critic) drives home to me why I, we, have missed Fuller’s incisive, erudite and often controversial writing so much over the past 30 years.
depth. In the same week that I am re-famiIiarising myself with it, Adrian Searle’s ‘piece’ in The Guardian (I can’t even be bothered to revisit it to get its exact point, but in general it was a self-ingratiating article on how hard it is to be an art critic) drives home to me why I, we, have missed Fuller’s incisive, erudite and often controversial writing so much over the past 30 years.
Notwithstanding the misguided and largely irrelevant viewpoints about his shift from leftist, Marxist readings of art history to a position more aligned to the right’s idealogy, his writing provided (still provides) vital and stimulating reading.* John Berger, whom Fuller regarded as his teacher, faced similar criticism from fellow leftist critics when he dared to introduce feeling, subjectivity and aesthetics into his richly imaginative writing.
Reading about art was a much simpler and enjoyable activity in my art student days at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. You would leave your studio space and wander along to the (very) small library, usually to look for what had come in to the journals’ section. If nothing new had come in, you would while away for a bit longer in the room where the back issues were kept.
Flash Art, Artscribe, Studio International and Modern Painters were the ones I usually hunted for- these magazines were very important to me in my formative years, mainly because they put much more emphasis on the visual, working alongside the writing (compared to say October, or even Art Monthly, which were, still are, largely text based journals).
The excitement for me when Fuller’s Modern Painters first appeared alongside those other magazines, in 1987, is still strong in my memory. The iterations that it went through in the 1990s and early 2000s probably would have remained acceptable to Fuller. What it has become under the ownership of the Blouin Foundation, I’m sure has had him turning in his grave repeatedly. The lightweight, glamourising approach to a lifestyle world of art fairs, artist celebrities and the superficial world of dealers and collectors, has unfortunately become the norm for this and so many other art journals today.
It occurs to me that the time of Fuller provided a sort of halcyon period for readers of art criticism and writing, particularly for those of us who were not really getting much out of the likes of Rosalind Krauss, Michael Fried or Hal Foster. Not to mention the impenetrable art theory influenced by the likes of Derrida and Deleuze. The writing of Fuller and others in Modern Painters, and by Matthew Collings, Stuart Morgan and others in Artscribe, offered a different approach which I felt drawn to.
In fact for me, Collings persists as one of the few relatable and interesting art writers today- although he could hardly be described as a follower of Fuller, far from it, he does seem to me to be cut from the same cloth (watch his fantastic 2012 interview with Alex Katz at Turner Contemporary in Margate, where a discussion on beauty dominates).
So although Fuller and Collings were always implacably opposed, and at different ends of the art criticism spectrum, they nevertheless provided a world of art writing that I could relate to, and wanted to know more about. It was an exciting time, and moreover what they were writing about created discussion around the studios. I don't think that happens so much now. When the news of his death reached the painting studios at Gray's School of Art, I remember there being a palpable sense of shock, and it becoming a big talking point.
So these are my memories of Fuller, and I am enjoying re-visiting his writing again. I am looking forward to receiving in the post an order I have made for a second hand copy of John McDonald's edited essays by Fuller in a book called Modern Painters, Reflections on British Art, and also Fuller's autobiographical Marches Past.
I am also remembering that around April 1990 I made this painting in my final year. I cannot honestly recall to what extent it was prompted by Fuller's death, or indeed if it was perhaps nothing more than an immature young artist's criticism of critics. But if nothing else, it does remind me of those stimulating days of talking about art criticism around the studios at art school, and Fuller's undoubted part in them.
The excitement for me when Fuller’s Modern Painters first appeared alongside those other magazines, in 1987, is still strong in my memory. The iterations that it went through in the 1990s and early 2000s probably would have remained acceptable to Fuller. What it has become under the ownership of the Blouin Foundation, I’m sure has had him turning in his grave repeatedly. The lightweight, glamourising approach to a lifestyle world of art fairs, artist celebrities and the superficial world of dealers and collectors, has unfortunately become the norm for this and so many other art journals today.
It occurs to me that the time of Fuller provided a sort of halcyon period for readers of art criticism and writing, particularly for those of us who were not really getting much out of the likes of Rosalind Krauss, Michael Fried or Hal Foster. Not to mention the impenetrable art theory influenced by the likes of Derrida and Deleuze. The writing of Fuller and others in Modern Painters, and by Matthew Collings, Stuart Morgan and others in Artscribe, offered a different approach which I felt drawn to.
In fact for me, Collings persists as one of the few relatable and interesting art writers today- although he could hardly be described as a follower of Fuller, far from it, he does seem to me to be cut from the same cloth (watch his fantastic 2012 interview with Alex Katz at Turner Contemporary in Margate, where a discussion on beauty dominates).
So although Fuller and Collings were always implacably opposed, and at different ends of the art criticism spectrum, they nevertheless provided a world of art writing that I could relate to, and wanted to know more about. It was an exciting time, and moreover what they were writing about created discussion around the studios. I don't think that happens so much now. When the news of his death reached the painting studios at Gray's School of Art, I remember there being a palpable sense of shock, and it becoming a big talking point.
So these are my memories of Fuller, and I am enjoying re-visiting his writing again. I am looking forward to receiving in the post an order I have made for a second hand copy of John McDonald's edited essays by Fuller in a book called Modern Painters, Reflections on British Art, and also Fuller's autobiographical Marches Past.
I am also remembering that around April 1990 I made this painting in my final year. I cannot honestly recall to what extent it was prompted by Fuller's death, or indeed if it was perhaps nothing more than an immature young artist's criticism of critics. But if nothing else, it does remind me of those stimulating days of talking about art criticism around the studios at art school, and Fuller's undoubted part in them.
"Death of the Art Critic", oil on canvas, 121.5 x 121.7cm, 1990
*I revisited this paragraph on Tuesday 9th June, as it revolves around the most common criticism of Fuller, and it had been playing on my mind a lot. I have not re-edited this part, but do now wish I had worded it differently. What I wish to clarify here is that the criticism that existed (and still exists) of Fuller's ideological shift to the 'right' would certainly not be irrelevant it were in fact true. To the very end Fuller remained critical of Thatcherism, and in fact was quick to point out that the biggest player in the contemporary art boom of the late 1980's was Charles Saatchi, who had played such a significant part in the advertising campaigns of the Tory Party, and indeed the art trading market economy at that time. The revisionist, and what I still believe to be misguided, criticisms of Fuller's political views were wonderfully exposed by Peter Abbs in his book 'The Educational Imperative: A Defence of Socratic and Aesthetic Learning'.
The writer wishes to express gratitude to Fuller's son, the actor Laurence Fuller, for the extensive online archive he is building around his father's career. If you are interested in finding out more about Peter Fuller, it is indispensible: The Peter Fuller Project
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