John Anthony Thwaites (21 January 1909 – 21 November 1981) was a British art critic and author, who lived and worked in West Germany from 1946.

This came to a premature end in 1939 when he had to abandon his entire collection[1] in his then apartment in Katowice due to the German invasion of Poland.

In 1949 he left the Foreign Service and devoted himself to establishing modern art in West Germany, lecturing, writing for a number of newspapers and giving slideshows.

According to him true artists are those who truthfully and originally interpret that reality, in contrast with "shameless epigones" whom he believed to be just chasing after success by following trends.

His bête noire was Joseph Beuys, who was not an artist in his opinion, but a demagogue and seducer whom he eventually compared with Hitler.