Brian Sewell, who was described as Britain’s most famous and controversial art critic, has died aged 84. The London Evening Standard critic died on Saturday after being diagnosed with cancer last year.

Sewell underwent successful surgery in July 2014 to remove a tumour from his neck but a strong course of radiotherapy affected his ability to taste and talk. He was severely unwell for the final month of his life, his friend and fellow art critic Charles Darwent said on Saturday.

An acerbic critic, Sewell made no secret of his contempt for modern art and was renowned for barbs directed at the likes of Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. He called Emin “trivial”, Hirst “fucking dreadful”, David Hockney “a vulgar prankster” and once claimed graffiti artist Banksy “should have been put down at birth”.

His waspish putdowns, love of fine drawing, knowledge of art history and his genteel diction made him one of the UK’s best-known critics. His witty turn of phrase led to regular television appearances, including two turns as a panellist on the BBC gameshow Have I Got News For You.

Sewell’s fastidious tastes in art were just as exacting when it came to the great masters. He once told the Observer that Raphael was suitable only if you needed “a really good Ordnance Survey” of a face, while the superior Titian could instead deliver something that would “speak to you”.

“He was fantastic,” said Darwent. “It takes a lot of courage to stand up to the tides of fashion but he didn’t just do it, he loved it. There was a side to Brian people didn’t see. He was characterised as someone who just said rude things about people but he had a hugely generous and inspiring side.”

Sewell often attracted controversy for his uncompromising comments, particularly when he said in 2008 that there had “never been a first-rank woman artist”.

“Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness,” he said. “Women make up 50% or more of classes at art school. Yet they fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it’s something to do with bearing children.”

In 1994, the Standard published a letter signed by 35 of his opponents from the art world – among them John Golding, Eduardo Paolozzi and Rachel Whiteread – accusing him of a “dire mix of sexual and class hypocrisy, intellectual posturing and artistic prejudice”.

For much of his life Sewell, who was brought up by his mother, Jessica, and stepfather, Robert Sewell, in Kensington, did not know the identity of his father, the composer Philip Heseltine, better known as Peter Warlock.

He was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s boys’ school in Hampstead and turned down a place at Oxford University to study at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. His tutor at the Courtauld was Anthony Blunt, the art expert and Soviet spy, and the two went on to become friends.

He worked for Christie’s auction house after graduating and joined the Evening Standard in 1984, writing for the paper until June 2015.

Sewell preferred the term “queer” to gay, although he claimed he had never formally “come out” about his sexuality. The first volume of his memoirs,Outsider, recounted that he had slept with 1,000 men and the book became a surprise critical success. Two years ago, and suffering with severe back pain, he told the Guardian: “I am still here, but find life more of a trial than I used to.”

He defended himself from accusations that his writing was cruel and did nothing to help Britain’s contemporary art scene. “I only review major exhibitions, so the people who really suffer are not the working artists, they’re the curators,” he said.

The Standard, Sewell’s long-time employer, said in a statement: “Simply, Brian was the nation’s best art critic, best columnist and the most brilliant and sharpest writer in recent times.

“His wit was always rapier sharp but his kindness knew no limits. He was a legend in the world of journalism and the arts. Brian will be deeply missed by all of his colleagues who have thought of Brian more as family than a friend.”

This article was amended on 21 September to include the names of Sewell’s mother and stepfather.