NOTEWORTHY DEATHS

— Ex-Times art critic, magazine founder

NEW YORK -

Hilton Kramer, the former chief art critic at The New York Times and founding editor of The NewCriterion magazine, has died. He was 84.

His wife, Esta Kramer, said the cause was heart failure. He had developed a rare blood disease and had moved to an assisted-living facility in Harpswell, she said. They lived nearby in southern Maine, in Damariscotta.

Kramer started his work as an art critic in the early 1950s and joined the Times in 1965 as art-news editor. He became the chief art critic in 1973. He left the paper in 1982 for The New Criterion, a monthly journal that critiques the arts and other topics.

A resolute high modernist, he criticized many of the aesthetic waves that appeared after the great achievementsof the New York School, notably pop art (“a very great disaster”), conceptual art (“scrapbook art”) and postmodernism (“modernism with a sneer, a giggle, modernism without any animating faith inthe nobility and pertinence of its cultural mandate”).

In his work, Kramer took issue with the art world over topics such as the types of exhibits museums were showcasing to draw their audiences, as well as other artistic targets. One of theobjects of his scorn was “The Gates,” a 2005 installation in Central Park that put thousands of saffron drapes on frames along the footpaths.

Hilton Kramer was born on March 25, 1928, in Gloucester, Mass. His wife, Esta, was his only immediate survivor.

Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press and by The New York Times.

Arkansas, Pages 10 on 03/29/2012

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