Alastair Sooke

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Alastair Sooke (/suːk/; born 1981) is an English art critic and broadcaster, most notable for reporting and commenting on art for the British media and writing and presenting documentaries on art and art history for BBC television and radio. His BBC documentaries include Modern Masters for BBC One and two three-part series, the Treasures of Ancient Rome and the Treasures of Ancient Greece, for BBC Four.[1]
Alastair is a deputy art critic at The Daily Telegraph, writing on art and art history, including on the Turner Prize and contemporary art. He is also a regular reporter on The Culture Show.
== Biography: ==
Sooke was born in west London[3] in October 1981[4] and educated at Westminster School,[5] an independent boarding school in Central London, where he was a Queen's Scholar,[6] followed by a Westminster Scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford,[5] where he read English language and literature and won the university’s Charles Oldham Shakespeare Prize.[citation needed] After graduating with a First, he studied for an M.A. at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, specialising in ancient Greek and Roman art.[citation needed]
Sooke is known as a writer and presenter of documentaries on art and art history for BBC television and radio.[7] His BBC documentaries include Modern Masters (for BBC One), exploring four artists who shaped modern art; the tripartite series Treasures of Ancient Rome in 2012 and Treasures of Ancient Greece, for BBC Four, in 2015, and How the Devil Got His Horns, a history of depictions of the Devil in Western art (also for BBC Four).[citation needed]
Sooke also serves as an art critic, and writes periodical-length pieces on art theory, history and criticism, as well as penning investigative pieces that have appeared in journals, and newspapers. These include The Telegraph, where he is a deputy art critic after joining the paper as a trainee journalist in 2003.[8] Sooke is also regular reporter on The Culture Show.[2] In addition, Sooke has written books, on both Henri Matisse and Roy Lichtenstein.
Sooke's work for the Daily Telegraph has included regular reporting and commentary on contemporary art, writing that has garnered attention beyond England. Sooke has reported and commented periodically on the Turner Prize for contemporary art. For instance, responding to the release of the names of those shortlisted for the Turner in 2010, Sooke wrote, "The great triumph of the Turner Prize was that, during the 1990s, it won a large audience for contemporary art in this country. But, now that this battle has been won, it faces a tricky problem: how can it sustain widespread interest when it no longer feels appropriate to describe the work that is shortlisted each year as 'shocking' or 'controversial'?"
== Links: ==
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Sooke
Category:Critique
Category:Art History
Category:Art & Business
Category:Art World
Category:British Art