Tim Marlow – biography

More about the art historian, curator and broadcaster

Tim Marlow Meets

Tony Bennett at his New York studio
Tim Marlow Meets

Mike Leigh at the Cartoon Museum
Tim Marlow Meets

Michael Palin at the Tate Britain
Tim Marlow Meets

Tim Marlow meets fashion designer Paul Smith at his London studios
Tim Marlow Meets

Tim Marlow meets with opera soprano Renée Fleming

Brace yourselves: we’re going to be a bit shallow here. Back in the day, the title ‘art historian’ after your name would imply sensible cords, a touch of dandruff and – quite plausibly – elbow patches. Tim Marlow is a living example of just how far we have come: there’s not an elbow patch in sight, the cords are probably reserved for the weekends and the unforgiving high definition filming betrays no need for recourse to the Head & Shoulders...So, just how did art historian, curator, writer and broadcaster Tim Marlow get to be such a fine example of the modern art establishment?

While his first big move was founding Tate: The Art Magazine in 1993, where he remained the editor until 2003, but from 1991 to 1998 he presented Radio 4's arts programme Kaleidoscope, for which he won a Sony Award. Radio led to TV, and he has subsequently presented a number of series exploring, amongst other things, the Nude, the worlds’ greatest artists; Easter in Art; Hogarth, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and many more. Perhaps his most famous – or infamous broadcast to date however, was the now-notorious ‘Is Painting Dead’ live debate for Channel Four in which Tracey Emin stated “I’m drunk, I had a good night out with my friends and I’m leaving now”, before walking out.

In addition, Tim is the author of various books including one on Caro, in collaboration with the sculptor himself; a study of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin and another on the Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele as well as a survey of great artists published by Faber. He has also written about art and culture for The Times, The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, Arena and many other periodicals. He is visiting lecturer at Winchester School of Art and an examiner on the Sculpture MA; a former Creative Director of Sculpture at Goodwood and also Director of Exhibitions at Jay Jopling’s White Cube gallery in London.