For their first weekly edition, the revived London Evening Standard plans to let the notorious art critic Brian Sewell loose on the National Gallery’s new “Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” exhibition. This marks a rare appearance from Sewell: he hasn’t had any by-lines in nine years, mostly on account of being dead.
The Standard’s owners have not discovered the art of reanimation. They’ve announced, instead, that they will use AI to produce a review in the style of Sewell’s existing corpus. The ironies of this stunt are carefully calculated: the critic was fascinated by forgeries and counterfeiters, and once admitted to actually painting over a faux Hogarth and selling it to the Tate. He made a point of declaring himself “unmoved” by Young British Artists (distrust of the new, perhaps?). It is funny to dispatch a robot to review Van Gogh, a man so overwhelmed by the force of human emotion that he cut off his own ear. Sewell’s estate are said to be “delighted” with the arrangement, which the Standard claim will be a one-off.
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