Hilton Kramer | |
---|---|
Born |
Hilton Kramer March 25, 1928 Gloucester, Massachusetts |
Died | March 27, 2012 Harpswell, Maine |
(aged 84)
Cause of death | Heart failure |
Residence | Damariscotta, Maine |
Nationality | American |
Education |
Syracuse University (Bachelor's degree in English) Columbia University Harvard University Indiana University New School for Social Research |
Occupation | Art critic, essayist |
Years active | 1950s–2006 |
Spouse(s) | Esta Kramer |
Hilton Kramer (March 25, 1928 – March 27, 2012) was an American art critic and essayist.
Kramer was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was educated at Syracuse University, receiving a Bachelor's degree in English; Columbia University; he studied literature and philosophy at Harvard University, Indiana University, and the New School for Social Research.
Kramer worked as the editor of Arts Magazine, art critic for The Nation, and from 1965 to 1982, as chief art critic for The New York Times. He also published in the Art and Antiques Magazine and The New York Observer. Kramer's "Media Watch" column was published weekly in the New York Post from 1993 to November 1997.
Kramer fought against leftwing political bias in art criticism, and what he perceived as the aesthetic nihilism characteristic of many 20th century working artists and art critics. The frustration with the journal's policies led to his resignation from The New York Times in 1982. He co-founded (with Samuel Lipman) the conservative magazine The New Criterion, for which Kramer was also co-editor and publisher. He took a strongly anti-Communist stance in his 2003 review of Anne Applebaum's Gulag: A History. In The Twilight of the Intellectuals (1999), he defended the anti-Communist views of art critic Clement Greenberg.