Aftermath: Robert Hughes Looks Back

“Everyone is at least familiar with the horror story surrounding Robert Hughes, the renowned Australian art critic and TV talking head: the accident that left him crippled, the threat of extortion that came from some of the travellers in the other car, the dangerous driving charges that were laid, then dismissed, then reinstated, and his subsequent sentencing in a court this year.” Hughes, who has written a new book on Goya, seems decidedly embittered by his experiences, and is furious with elements of the Australian press who sought to tar him as irresponsible and bigoted. He also believes that he was a victim of a judiciary run amok in provincial Western Australia. And just for the record, he believes that George W. Bush is “[leaching] any sense of democracy out” of America. In short, Hughes is not a happy man.