Matthew Collings

Matthew Collings is a writer and artist. 

He studied painting at the Byam Shaw School of Painting, 1974-78, and completed an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmith’s College, 1990-92.  From 1983-1987 he edited the magazine Artscribe and from 1988-1996 he worked as the art critic and occasional presenter for BBC 2’s ‘The Late Show’.

As well as presenting Channel Four’s live coverage of the Turner Prize each year, he has written and presented several major television series for Channel 4 – ‘This is modern art’, ‘Hello Culture’, ‘Matt’s Old Masters’, ‘Impressionism: Revenge of the Nice’ and ‘Self Portraits: The Me Generations’. ‘This is modern art’ won several awards including a BAFTA. 

He is the author of several books on modern and contemporary art, including Blimey! From Bohemia to Britpop: the London art world from Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst (1997), It Hurts: New York art from Warhol to Now (1999) and Art Crazy Nation: the post-Blimey art world (2002), all published by 21; and This Is Modern Art  (1999), published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.  His monograph on the artist Sarah Lucas was published by Tate Publishing in October 2002.   A book of interviews with the designer Ron Arad was published by Phaidon in 2003.  A book on the art of the old masters entitled Matt’s Old Masters, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2003.

In January 2002 he curated the ‘Art Crazy Nation Show’ at the Milton Keynes Gallery, which controversially juxtaposed works by fashionable young artists such as Sarah Lucas and Jake and Dinos Chapman, with older, forgotten abstract painters.

He writes a regular monthly column for the international art magazine Modern Painters and his latest TV series ‘Civilization’ is currently broadcast on Channel 4. 

Matthew Collings’ paintings are done in collaboration with his wife, the mosaicist, Emma Biggs.  Their works are exhibited under the name: Emma Biggs and Matthew Collings and are represented by the Fine Art Society, Bond St, London.  Their last exhibition was at the Fine Art Society in May 2006. 

Titles

This is Civilisation  (21 Publishing, 2008) 

A Brief History of Painting: 2000 BC -- AD 2000 (co-written with Matthew Bolton)  (Book Sales, 2006)

Matt's Old Masters: Titian, Rubens, Velasquez, Hogarth  (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005)

Ron Arad  (Phaidon Press, 2004)

Art Crazy Nation: The Post-Blimey London Artworld  (21 Publishing, 2002)

British Abstract Painting 2001  (Momentum, 2001)

This is Modern Art  (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1999)

It Hurts (co-written with Ian MacMillan)  (21 Publishing, 1999)

Blimey!: From Bohemia to Britpop : The London Artworld from Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst  (21 Publishing, 1998)