Sarah Kent

Sarah Kent (born 1947) is a British art critic, formerly art editor of the weekly London "what's on" guide Time Out.

She was an early supporter of the Young British Artists in general, and Tracey Emin in particular, helping Emin to get exposure.

This has led to polarised reactions of praise and opposition for Kent.

She adopts a feminist stance and has stated her position to be that of "a spokesperson, especially for women artists, in a country that is essentially hostile to contemporary art."

Kent studied painting at the Slade School of Art and worked as an artist until 1977.

She then became Exhibitions Director at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) for two years, and also started writing for Time Out.

At the ICA she staged exhibitions by Andy Warhol, Allen Jones and Christo, as well as feminist artist Alexis Hunter.

Another show was of satirical art, Berlin a Critical View: Ugly Realism.

Her own work changed from painting to photography, primarily of male nudes.

She became art editor of Time Out, for which she wrote reviews.

She is now a well-known figure in the arts in London, and has appeared on radio and TV shows.

She also works in a freelance capacity as an editor and critic, and has provided essays, catalogues and books for the Saatchi Gallery and White Cube gallery.

In 1992, she was a jurist on the Turner Prize panel chaired by Sir Nicholas Serota.

The other members were Marie-Claude Beaud, Director, Foundation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, Robert Hopper, Director, Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, and Howard Karshan.

The winner was Grenville Davey, and the other nominees Damien Hirst, David Tremlett and Alison Wilding.

She is the editor of Shark-Infested Waters: The Saatchi Collection of British Art in the 90s (Zwemmer, 1994).

She was an early advocate for the Young British Artists (YBAs), also known as Britart, and a strong supporter of Tracey Emin, helping to get her early exposure.

Kent and Matthew Collings have been described as "the parents of the popularization process having audiences approaching half a million each" of "the explosion of art into mainstream culture in nineties London."

The connection with the YBAs has inevitably attracted criticism similar to that which is directed at the artists:

Another criticism is that Kent's freelance working for institutions, such as White Cube and the Saatchi Gallery, whose shows she also reviews in Time Out, is a conflict of interest.

Advocating Britart, she is on the opposite side of the fence from the traditionally oriented critic, Brian Sewell.

This had led to personal comments in the media.

In 1995, when asked about a suitable Christmas present for him (he keeps dogs), she replied:

Eight years later Sewell commented in one of his articles, referring to a heart operation:

She is also mentioned in the lyrics to ''The Turner Prize Song Art or Arse?

- You be the judge'', written and performed by Billy Childish, on a Stuckists CD:

The reactions to her mirror the divisions in contemporary art in Britain, and she is praised as a pioneer by Louisa Buck:

Sarah Kent has been an energetic chronicler of the contemporary, hoofing off to the most obscure and inaccessible venues long before it became fashionable for art to be exhibited in unusual places, and championing both young artists and writers at the beginning of their careers ... on television and radio she is often pitched against more conservative elements as an animated advocate of the wilder shores of today's art.

Since November 2010 she contributes regularly to the arts desk: Sarah Kent author page on the arts desk website

Other contemporary UK art critics: