Collings began his career working at the magazine
Artscribe, first in the production department in 1979 and later taking over as editor, filling that role from 1983 to 1987, bringing international relevance to the magazine. In 1987, he received a
Turner Prize commendation for his work on
Artscribe. Collings later moved into television, working as a producer and presenter on the
BBC's
The Late Show from 1989 to 1995. In the early 1990s, he brought
Martin Kippenberger into the BBC studios to create an installation, and he interviewed
Georg Herold while this
Cologne-based conceptual artist painted a large canvas with
beluga caviar. Collings gave
Jeff Koons his first sympathetic exposure on British TV, and
Damien Hirst was also introduced for the first time to the UK TV audience by Collings. Collings wrote and presented documentary films for the BBC on individual artists, including
Donald Judd,
Georgia O'Keeffe and
Willem de Kooning, as well as broader historical subjects such as
Hitler's "
Degenerate art" exhibition, art looted in the Second World War by Germany and Russia,
Situationism, Spain's post-Franco art world and the rise of the Cologne art scene. After leaving the BBC, Collings wrote
Blimey! From Bohemia to Britpop: The London Artworld from Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst, which humorously chronicled the rise of the
Young British Artists (YBA) movement. Published in 1997 by 21, a new company founded by
David Bowie, among a group of others,
Blimey! was described by
Artforum magazine as "…one of the best-selling contemporary-art books ever". (
Kate Bush on the YBA Sensation,
Artforum, 2004). The article went on to say that Collings "invented the perfect voice to complement YBA: He makes an impact without (crucially) ever appearing to try too hard." The following year, Collings wrote and presented the
Channel 4 TV series
This is Modern Art, which won him a
BAFTA (2000), among other awards. Collings wrote and presented a Channel 4 series in 2003 about the "painterly" stream of Old Master painting, called ''Matt's Old Masters
. A book by the same title accompanied the series. Further Channel 4 series by Collings included Impressionism: Revenge of the Nice
(2004) and The Me Generations: Self Portraits,'' (2005). Between 1997 and 2005, Collings presented the Channel 4 TV programme on the
Turner Prize. In 2007, he wrote and presented the Channel 4 TV series
This is Civilisation. In 2009, he appeared on the
BBC Two programme
School of Saatchi, a reality TV show for newly trained UK artists. In October 2010, he wrote and presented a BBC Two series called
Renaissance Revolution, in which he discussed three Renaissance paintings:
Raphael's
Madonna del Prato;
Hieronymus Bosch's
The Garden of Earthly Delights; and
Piero della Francesca's
The Baptism of Christ. In 2014, Collings wrote and presented a 90-minute documentary for
BBC Four on abstract art:
The Rules of Abstraction considered early modernist beginnings by
Paul Klee,
Wassily Kandinsky,
Hilma af Klint, and others, as well as contemporary continuities, ranging from
Fiona Rae to
El Anatsui. In the same year, Collings appeared in
Frederick Wiseman's documentary
National Gallery, composing and rehearsing a piece-to-camera on Turner's
The Fighting Temeraire, for the documentary ''Turner's Thames'' (2012), which Collings wrote and presented for BBC Four. Since 2015, he has been the regular art critic for the
Evening Standard, replacing
Brian Sewell, who died that year. In 2026, hundreds of works by Matthew Collings criticizing Zionism and genocide in Gaza were presented at an exhibition at Joseph Wales Studios in Margate, Kent. Critics claimed the drawings in Margate contained antisemitic tropes, including depicting Jewish people eating babies. Collings denied the antisemitic interpretation. He said there were no such images in the show. Kent Police determined the drawings broke no criminal laws and were not antisemitic but criticised the state of Israel. ==Personal life==