Like John Singer Sargent, who I will mention later, Augustus John is one of those gifted artists who is now sneered at and dismissed as a nonentity. I have attended many life-drawing classes over my lifetime, and have yet to find an art-teacher with a good word to say about him. His crime seems to be to have too much talent: some people confuse facility with facile, that is the term of abuse meaning slick and meretricious. Whatever the true reason, it's nonsense, and simply shows up the sheep-like mentality of so many people who should know better, some of whom hold responsible jobs in education.
On a lighter note, one of my tutors at architecture school, called John Farmer, who did not lack self-esteem, had a son he called Gussie, Augustus John's nickname.
"Don't tell me," I said "he's called Augustus John Farmer"
"Yes,"said John Farmer, a bit sheepishly, absolutely deadpan. The man had no sense of humour.
Of course Michael Holroyd wrote a two-volume biography of John in the 1970's.
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