Tuesday, February 14, 2012

David Craven--In Memoriam

I just got this news of the transition of David Craven, one of the scholars whose work I really, really admired; a pioneer Latin American art historian in many ways. He contributed immensely to the development of rigorous approaches to the art history of modernism outside of Europe. And who will forget his tour-de-force essay, "Latin American Origins of Alternative Modernism"? Any student of modernism who ignores it does so at his own intellectual peril! 
But come to think of it; does anyone know of any invention more stupid than Death?
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It is with great sadness that I write to inform you that Professor David Craven passed away on Saturday 11 February 2012. We are in the midst of making arrangements for a memorial service that will be held this Friday 17 February at 2pm and will notify you with the specifics of the service.

Dr. Craven had been on the faculty at UNM since 1993. He was the Distinguished Professor of Art History at the University of New Mexico, where he was also affiliated with the Latin American & Iberian Institute. He has authored ten books and major museum catalogs, including Art and Revolution in Latin America, 1910-1990 (Yale University Press, 2002 & 2006). In addition, he has been Guest Editor of the Oxford Art Journal (1994) and Modernism/Modernity (January 2008). More than 100 articles and review essays by him have appeared in the leading journals of over two dozen different countries. In 1991, Craven won a Medal of Excellence from the State of New York.

He had degrees in Art History from Vanderbilt University (1974) and from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1979), where he wrote his dissertation under Donald Kuspit, a student of German philosopher Theodor Adorno.
Kirsten Pai Buick, 
Chair, Department of Art and Art History, 
University of New Mexico

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