Edward Lucie-Smith, the Jamaican-born British art critic, poet and author whose output across more than six decades shaped how several generations understood modern and contemporary Art, has died aged 93.
Artlyst write: 'It is with great sadness that we announce the death of the distinguished art critic, writer and poet Edward Lucie-Smith (1933–2026). For the last fifteen years, Edward served as Artlyst’s Chief Reviewer, bringing unrivalled knowledge, sharp critical insight and an unmistakable literary voice to our publication. His reviews challenged convention, celebrated artistic achievement and never shied away from difficult questions. A towering figure in post-war art criticism, Edward leaves behind an extraordinary body of work that shaped generations of artists, writers and readers. His absence will be felt by everyone at Artlyst and throughout the international art community.' See the Artlyst obituary here.
I first encountered Lucie-Smith through his poems in Penguin Modern Poets 6 (with Jack Clemo and George MacBeth) but met him early on in my time as Priest-in-charge at St Stephen Walbrook. Together, we organised exhibitions by Kim Poor, Joe Machine, Terry Ffyffe, Alexander de Cadenet, and Jamaican Spiritual artists. These also included concerts by Italian pianist Claudio Crismani, Riyad Nicolas and Katya DJ, Niklas Oldemeier and Shir Victoria Levy, poetry from Steven O'Brien, Joe Machine, and Lucie-Smith, and dance from Fernando Montaño and Kirill Burlov.
During the poetry evening at St Stephen Walbrook organised with The London Magazine, Lucie-Smith read his powerfully intense series of poems about the Srebrenica massacre which took place in Bosnia in 1995. Lucie-Smith and I lectured on Francis Bacon at St Stephen Walbrook and also spoke at the PV for Terry Ffyffe's 'Painting the Light' exhibition. At a conference entitled 'Art Awakening Humanity', organised with Alexander de Cadenet, Lucie-Smith gave his agnostic’s view of art and spirituality. Knowledgable about art and spirituality, his books included 'The face of Jesus', a collection of paintings and images of Jesus throughout the centuries depicting his life, from birth to his crucifixion to his resurrection.
As Chief Reviewer for Artlyst, he introduced me to Artlyst's Editor, Paul Robinson, and thereby enabled the invitation I received to begin writing for Artlyst. I owe him a debt of gratitude for that introduction and for the exhibitions we were able to organise together in my time at Walbrook.
Lucie-Smith was an enthusiast who, even though he had seen so much work over the course of his career, was still open to surprise as he wrote of Ffyffe's final series of work: "Every now and then even a hardened old lag in the art business - yes folks, I mean me - gets a nice surprise … Terry Ffyffe-asked me to come and look at a new series of paintings … and my reaction was 'Wow!' … These were whirling, dynamic abstract designs - a total break with anything major of his that I had encountered previously.” He was also a loyal supporter of artists like Ffyffe, even when their work was not generally considered as fashionable as that of others among their peers. Lucie-Smith was strong in his enthusiasms, insights and opinions and was happy to hold contrary views to those of other critics - see, for example, his twelve defining Artlyst reviews.
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