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.....interesting write up...love that style.
From bad to worse.......
"Hughes had established an unassailable position as the world's most famous and most influential art critic, when things recently started to go wrong for him. He had a nervous breakdown in 1997. While in Australia in 1999 to film the documentary Beyond the Fatal Shore, he was in a head-on collision and nearly died. He was accused of causing the accident (of which he has no recollection) and charged with dangerous driving. Then when the show ultimately aired, Hughes was accused of showing a negative and outdated view of Australia.
Bad went to worse when he was acquitted of the dangerous driving charge, and afterwards launched a personal attack against the public prosecutors for bringing the case against him. They obtained a retrial and filed defamation lawsuits against Hughes, the result being that the writer could be jailed and also be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. I haven't found recent news of this case, but it appears that Hughes intends to remain in exile in the US rather than return for the second trial.
The worst imaginable news hit Robert Hughes in April, 2001: his thirty-three-year-old son Danton, a sculptor, committed suicide in Australia.
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