Guy Brett, Influential British Curator and Critic, Dies at 78

Guy Brett, a prominent British curator and critic who championed artists from Latin America and Asia, has died at age 78. Born in Yorkshire, he co-founded the Signals Gallery in London's West End from 1964 to 1966, establishing it as a hub connecting avant-garde movements across Latin America, Europe, and London. Brett collaborated with co-founders David Medalla, Paul Keeler, Gustav Metzger, and Marcello Salvadori to publish the Signals Newsbulletin, which featured international artists alongside poetry and critical writing on diverse subjects. His career began as a critic at the Times from 1964 to 1975. Brett curated his first major exhibition, In Motion, in 1966, a touring kinetic art show funded by the Arts Council that included works by Takis, David Medalla, Lygia Clark, Jean Tinguely, and Pol Bury. In 2000, he organized the group exhibition Force Fields: Phases of the Kinetic, which traveled from London's Hayward Gallery to MACBA in Barcelona. He also curated a 2019 retrospective of Greek artist Takis at Tate Modern in London. Through his work, Brett sought to broaden the historical art canon by highlighting underrepresented artists.