Christopher Allen

Christopher Allen (born 1953) is an Australian art historian, critic, and educator.

Biography Born in Algiers to Australian parents, Allen was educated in the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Japan, France and Australia. He graduated in 1975 from the University of New South Wales with a Bachelor of Arts in French (First Class Honours, University Medal) and won a scholarship to study for his (Master of Arts) at the University of Aix-en-Provence and the Collège de France. In 1992, he completed his PhD at the University of Sydney.

In his critiques of works and artists, Allen emphasises craftmanship, skill, and formal and aesthetic qualities. He deplores "bland, decorative surface" and he points to "pseudo-political contemporary art", especially as expressed in the wall labels in museums. Large-scale portraits, as commonly submitted to the Archibald Prize, are regular subjects of his criticism.

Personal life Allen is the grandson of World War II Major General Arthur Samuel "Tubby" Allen, the son of novelist and short story writer Robert Allen, and brother of poet, performer and filmmaker Richard James Allen. He is married to Australian prize-winning painter Michelle Hiscock.

Publications As author La tradition du classicisme : essai sur la pratique et la théorie de la peinture classique de la Renaissance au dix-septième siècle français, thesis University of Sydney (1991) Art in Australia: From Colonization to Postmodernism (Thames & Hudson, 1997) French Painting in the Golden Age (Thames & Hudson, 2003) Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy, De Arte Graphica (translation and commentary, Librairie Droz, Geneva 2005, with Yasmin Haskell, Frances Muecke), on Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy's De arte graphica "Jeffrey Smart: Unpublished Paintings 1940–2007", essay (Philip Bacon Galleries, 2008) , on Jeffrey Smart Salient: Contemporary Artists at the Western Front: 1918–2018 One Hundred Years On (King Street Gallery on William, 2018)

As editor/contributor Richard Goodwin, editor (Oliver Freeman Editions, 1992) , on Richard J. Goodwin Ari Purhonen, editor (1992) Van Gogh: His Sources, Genius and Influence (1993) Philip Hardie, ed. (2002). "Ovid in art". The Cambridge Companion to Ovid. Cambridge University Press. pp. 336–367. . . A Companion to Australian Art, editor (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021),

As translator Thuillier, Jacques, Christopher Allen (translator). Poussin before Rome. exh. cat. New York: Richard Feigen (1995)