Outsider II: Always Almost: Never Quite

by Brian Sewell

The first volume of Brian Sewell's scandalous and haunting memoir was met by riotous applause in the press. 'Outsider is a delicious read ... I want more - much more,' wrote Rachel Cooke in the Guardian. 'This book records an extraordinary life and will, I hope, soon be continued,' added Lynn Barber in the Sunday Times. Outsider II will certainly not disappoint. With the first instalment ending tantalisingly in 1967 - after exploring Sewell's childhood, adolescence and early adulthood - this next chapter charts his path to becoming, as the Spectator noted, 'Surely the funniest art critic of our time.'

Genres: Art, Biography, Nonfiction

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2012

About the author

Brian R Sewell (born 15 July 1931 in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire) was an English art critic and media personality. He wrote for the London Evening Standard and was noted for his acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize. He was been described as "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic".

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A more complex man than he is given credit for. Admirably honest on life, death, friendships, sex and dogs. Perhaps rather less admirably on peers in the art world. (No honesty whatsoever about Anthony Blunt. Unable to defend, he sidesteps.) Fewer artist anecdotes than you would expect, although the Dali chapter is great. All in all, I do miss the gloomy old stick.

[Kim Stallwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of Brian Sewell's autobiography appears to focus on fewer topics and more in depth. This maybe an incorrect perception on my part but it's my lasting impression. Nonetheless, both volumes are enjoyable and informative even if at times a little too revealing of his personal life. The latter comment speaks to the author's frankness and honesty. These attributes are brought to such issues as meeting Salvador Dali and what's called 'The Blunt Affair,' which, of course, refers to Anthony Blunt, one of the Cambridge spies from the 1930s. His account of the trade in fine arts, particularly the work of such auction houses as Christies, is interesting and shattered my naivety about thinking these are professional and august institutions. They're not! He writes movingly and frankly about his mother's fatal illness and others of his friends as well as his own health. I'm come away thinking that Brian Sewell is a fascinating individual with many admirable qualities but I'm not convinced he's someone who I would want to know--not that I should have to worry about such an opportunity because it's highly unlikely it would ever occur! The next best thing, then, is to read 'Outsider' I and II. Incidentally, his self-described status as outsider to the art world in which he works resonated with me as someone who often feels like an outsider to the animal welfare/rights movement which has been the focus of my working adult life.

[i j jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never Quite...

Sewell was something of an enigma to me. Highly opinionated, well he was a critic and on tv came across as a dilettante with many barbed criticisms of those artists and fellow critics that fell between the cross hairs of his gaze. I was surprised by the amount of sex. But this seems an honest, warts and all, biography which is to be admired, no sweeping under the carpet for him. It was this honesty which got him into bad weather, not holding back on an opinion from which he seems to be surprised by the recipient's unhappy reaction.
His chapter on deaths ignominy is honest and moving and strikes a chord if you are of a certain age. His love of art and (classic) cars seemed at odds but he was a individual in an age of bland hyper and dubious celebrity. You can't describe him as lovable. His love was only for animals and dogs in particular.
Would I recommend this book? Yes...if you love art and appreciate honest opinion even if it comes with a painful disdain.

[Ade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Endlessly gossipy and waspish, though no doubt many of those slighted by Sewell would have tales of their own to tell in retaliation. Mostly rather dismissive or despairing of any changes in his world after about 1969, and (one suspects justifiably) often outright contemptuous of those working in the media, especially broadcast television. Along with all that, he's positively priapic until age and health curtail his energies, if not the urges that drive them. Some of the art discussion will only make sense to connoisseurs, but this barely detracts from the flow.

At one point, he reveals that he believes his real father to be the composer and critic Philip Heseltine, aka Peter Warlock, who was found dead from coal gas poisoning in what was commonly assumed to be a deliberate act. This rang a bell so I looked him up, and indeed he was the model for the character Maclintick in Anthony Powell's A Dance To The Music Of Time. Sewell himself could easily have appeared in a cameo in that series had his lifespan overlapped more closely with Powell's.

[M DOYLE · Rating 5 out of 5]

RIP

I miss this man... he wouldn’t submit and he did not fit which makes him all the more honest and admirable.

[Bob Dyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brian Sewell has produced two absorbing volumes of autobiography (this is the second, but perhaps there's no harm in reviewing both together). I read them with pleasure – though with two reservations. The author regales us with details of his sex life that I found tiresome and gratuitous. Also, he too often comes across as – if the expression is permissible – a spiteful old queen who seldom has much good to say about anybody. One exception to this is his treatment of Anthony Blunt, for whom his love and admiration obviously run deep. On the whole, I wonder if Mr Sewell's professed commitment to unflinching honesty is really much more than an unrestrained penchant for saying waspish things about people he doesn’t like. Underneath all this, though, is a civilized, cultivated and rather vulnerable man who has a good deal to say about life, education. art and art history that is intelligent and worthwhile; a good deal to say, too, about the rarefied, precious and sometimes disreputable world of the metropolitan fine art market. I wish he’d given us more of this and less of the vitriol. The final few pages of volume 2 are deeply moving, I thought. Always Almost: Never Quite is often annoyingly self-indulgent (though of what autobiography is that not true?), but, for all their faults, these two volumes are well worth reading.

[Studvet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it for his searing honesty and the way he states the unpleasant truth as easily as the pleasant. I found the sexual content open and honest and he just states things as they are -whether they favour him or not. He may not be right about all his opinions but you really feel the honesty and integrity of his opinions and believe him when he says "truth before friends". And he certainly backs up his claims eruditely. An admirable human being for that and it gives you confidence in what you are reading. Definitely one of a type and fascinating in his opinions-not afraid to call the Emperors New Clothes as they are. The only drawback is his prose style which is often convoluted and a sentence within a sentence within a sentence-at times you have to read certain bits 3 times to fully understand: so 4 instead of 5 ;) A life well-lived. His love of dogs humanises him a lot and his often crusty carapace hid a genuine compassion for people he cared about and it was illuminating to read a nuanced evaluation of Blunt rather than the usual "evil traitor" depiction.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second of his frank and often hilarious memoirs takes Brian Sewell from 1967, when he left the auction house Christie's, to the present day. It is an unflinching story of a passion for art, a seemingly unquenchable desire for sexual excess , a litany of personal feuds and the touching musings of a man who, despite his singular ability as a sceptical art critic and undoubted success in the art world and as a writer, feels that much of his life has been wasted. It hasn't.

[Craig Ewen · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me a case perhaps of loving this true individual while not exactly liking him: most of this second part of his memoirs was (bar one overly academic chapter and a few rather wincingly intimate bits) fascinating, informative, enjoyable - and touching.

[Ken Freed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous. Especially for a gay art collector like me who loathes the herd of independent minds.

[Mark Glassman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprising candid and entertaining.

[Rob Precht]

Sensual, naughty, intoxicating. Art and sex fused.