Peter Fuller

{{about||the Thoroughbred race horse owner|Peter D. Fuller|the Patriarch of Antioch|Peter the Fuller}} {{short description|British art critic and magazine editor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}} {{Use British English|date=March 2017}} '''Peter Michael Fuller''' (31 August 1947 – 28 April 1990) was a British art critic, documentarian, author (of more than 15 books), and founder and editor of the magazine ''Modern Painters''.<ref name=PFullerNYTobit/>{{cn|date = January 2025}}

==Early life and education== {{expand section | with = a more complete picture of family, locale, and upbringing | small = no | date = January 2025}} Peter Fuller was born in Damascus, Syria, and educated at Epsom College and Peterhouse, Cambridge.<ref name="Griffiths">Griffiths, Dennis (1992) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press 1422-1992'', London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, p.256.</ref>

==Career== In the early 1970s, Fuller wrote for the radical newspapers ''Black Dwarf'' and ''Seven Days'',<ref name="Griffiths"/> and was responsible for establishing the latter,<ref>Chenciner, Robert (February 2008) [http://www.artinfluence.com/introductiontopeterfuller "Introduction To Peter Fuller"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120704141402/http://www.artinfluence.com/introductiontopeterfuller |date=4 July 2012 }}, Art Influence (Peter Fuller Memorial Foundation).</ref> "a short-lived Marxist glossy weekly".<ref>Irwin, Robert (2011) [https://books.google.com/books?id=5HnrT6hecfkC&pg=PT182 "Memoirs of a Dervish: Sufis, Mystics and the Sixties"], London: Profile Books, p.182. This page number was derived from the source URL.)</ref> Fuller subsequently freelanced elsewhere.{{cn|date = January 2025}}

Fuller was the founder and founding editor of the quarterly magazine ''Modern Painters'', launched in 1987, a work "principally... bring[ing] attention to British artists."<ref name=PFullerNYTobit>{{cite news | author = NYT Metro Staff | date = 1 May 1990 | title = Peter Fuller; Art Critic, 42 | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 30 (B6) | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/01/obituaries/peter-fuller-art-critic-42.html | access-date = 8 January 2024 | quote =}}</ref><ref name="guardian jones 1999">{{cite news|last=Jones|first=Jonathan|title=This Man Made Britart What It Is. He Would Have Hated It|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/1999/may/13/artsfeatures|accessdate=24 September 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|date=13 May 1999}}</ref> reflecting his admiration for the aesthetic principles of John Ruskin.{{cn|date = January 2025}} In the spring of 1989 he was appointed art critic of ''The Sunday Telegraph'' and ''The Daily Telegraph'', the former of which carried his final review on Sunday, 29 April 1990.<ref name=PFullerNYTobit/><ref name="Griffiths"/>

Fuller wrote regularly for ''Art Monthly UK'' and ''New Society'' for nearly 20 years, alongside publishing such books as ''Art and Psychoanalysis''.{{cn|date = January 2025}} Originally a follower of the critic John Berger, Fuller moved to the political right in mid-life,{{when|date = January 2025}} coming into conflict with his former allies ''Art & Language''.{{cn|date = January 2025}} The archive of Fuller's letters, journals and writings is held at the Tate Gallery in London.{{cn|date = January 2025}}

==''The Peter Fuller Memorial Foundation''== {{expand section | with = a source-driven account of further description of the activities of the Foundation, since its inception (including whether its work continues) | small = no | date = January 2025}} The Peter Fuller Memorial Foundation, a registered English charity (no. 1014623), was set up in 1991.{{cn|date = January 2025}} The Foundation hosts an annual lecture at the Tate Gallery, and runs the online art magazine ''Art Influence''.{{cn|date = January 2025}}

==Personal life== Fuller's spouse in the final years of his life was his wife, Stephanie.<ref name=PFullerNYTobit/>

Peter Fuller died at age 42 in a single-vehicle car accident on the M4 motorway in Berkshire, England on 28 April 1990, an accident that also injured three others, including his wife and 3-year-old son.<ref name=PFullerNYTobit/> He is buried in Stowlangtoft, Suffolk, UK.{{cn|date = January 2025}}

==Books== {{unreferenced section|date = January 2025}}   Peter Michael Fuller was the author of more than 15 books on aesthetics, creativity, art, and its psychology.{{cn|date = January 2025}} * {{cite book | author = Fuller, Peter | year = 1976 | title = Die Champions: Psychoanalyse des Spitzensportlers | trans-title = The Champions: Psychoanalysis of the Top Athletes | location = Frankfurt am Main, Germany | publisher = S. Fischer | isbn = | url = | access-date = }}{{full|date=January 2025}} *''The Champions: The Secret Motives in Games and Sports'', New York, NY: Urizen Books, 1977.{{what|date=January 2025}} * ''The Champions: The Secret Motives in Games and Sports'', London, England: Allen Lane, 1978.{{what|date=January 2025}} *''The Psychology of Gambling'' (with Jon Halliday), Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1977. *''Art and Psychoanalysis'', London, England: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, 1981; The Hogarth Press, 1988. *''Beyond the Crisis in Art'', London, England: Writers and Readers, 1981. *''Robert Natkin'', New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1981. *''Seeing Berger: A Reevaluation of Ways of Seeing'', London, England: Writers & Readers, 1981. *''Aesthetics After Modernism'', London, England: Writers and Readers, 1983. *''The Naked Artis: 'Art and Biology' and Other Essays'', London, England: Writers & Readers, 1983. *''Images of God: The Consolations of Lost Illusions'', London, England: Chatto and Windus, 1985; London: The Hogarth Press, 1990. *''The Australian Scapegoat: Towards and Antipodean Aesthetic'', University of Western Australia Press, Western Australia, 1986. * {{cite book | author = Fuller, Peter; Crompton, Susan & Cork, Richard | year = 1988 | title = Henry Moore | location = London, England | publisher = Royal Academy of Arts-Weidenfeld & Nicolson | isbn = | url = | access-date = }}{{full|date=January 2025}} *''Seeing Through Berger'', The Claridge Press, 1988. *''Theoria: Art and the Absence of Grace'', Chatto and Windus, 1988. *''Left High and Dry: the Posturing of the Left Establishment'', The Claridge Press, 1990. *''Marches Past'', The Hogarth Press, 1991. *''Peter Fuller's Modern Painters: Reflections on British Art'', (John McDonald, ed.), London: Methuen, 1993. * {{cite book | author = Fuller, Peter | date = January 1993 | title = Henry Moore: An Interpretation | edition = 1st hardback | location = London, England | publisher = Methuen | asin = B003U86ZHQ | isbn = | url = | access-date = }} :* {{cite book | author = Fuller, Peter | date = 1994 | title = Henry Moore: An Interpretation | editor = O'Hear, Anthony | edition = 1st paperback | location = London, England | publisher = Methuen | isbn = 9780413685100 | url = | access-date = }}

==Films== Peter Fuller made a number of documentaries with Mike Dibb, including; *''Somewhere Over the Rainbow'' - art and psychoanalysis with Robert Natkin and Peter Fuller, 50 minutes, BBC, 1979 *''Fields of Play'' - series exploring the role of play in every area of our lives from childhood and learning to gambling and war games, 5x60 minutes, BBC, 1979 *''Naturally Creative'' - wide-ranging film essay on the origins of human creativity, 90 minutes, Channel 4, 1986/7

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== * [http://www.artinfluence.com Art Influence web-site]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller, Peter}} Category:1947 births Category:1990 deaths Category:British art critics Category:People from Damascus Category:Road incident deaths in England Category:People educated at Epsom College Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Category:The Daily Telegraph people Category:20th-century English businesspeople