Hilton Kramer

Hilton Kramer
Name	Hilton Kramer
Birth date	March 27, 1928
Birth place	Rochester, New York
Death date	April 27, 2012
Occupation	Art critic, editor, essayist
Notable works	The Revenge of the Philistines; The Twilight of the Intellectuals

Hilton Kramer was an American art critic and cultural commentator known for staunch defenses of aesthetic standards and formalist criticism. He served as a critic for major publications and co‑founded a conservative cultural magazine, shaping debates about modernism, postmodernism, and public funding for the arts. Kramer engaged with figures across the art world, journalism, and academia, often provoking controversy in debates with proponents of conceptual art, multiculturalism, and contemporary cultural policy.

Early life and education

Born in Rochester, New York, Kramer grew up amid the cultural institutions of upstate New York and the Northeast, influences that connected him to networks including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and regional galleries. He studied at Dartmouth College and later pursued graduate work at Harvard University, developing early interests aligned with formalist criticism associated with writers such as Clement Greenberg, John Ruskin, and Roger Fry. During his formative years he encountered the intellectual climates of New York City, Boston, and academic circles linked to Columbia University and Yale University.

Career

Kramer began his professional career writing for newspapers and cultural journals in the 1950s and 1960s, joining institutions such as the New York Times and later the New York Times Book Review and the New York Herald Tribune in roles that placed him amid editorial cultures of major metropolitan media. He moved to the New York Post and then to the New York Times, where his reviews and essays addressed exhibitions at institutions including the Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, and international venues like the Tate Gallery and Centre Pompidou. Kramer also contributed to journals such as Commentary, Partisan Review, and The Nation at different times, interacting intellectually with critics and writers like Harold Rosenberg, Robert Hughes, Arthur Danto, and Michael Fried. His books, including collections of criticism and polemical essays, were published by presses associated with cultural conservatives and mainstream publishers engaging debates around artists such as Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, and Andy Warhol.

Critical views and writing style

Kramer advocated a formalist approach and sustained attention to aesthetic value, aligning conceptually with advocates like Clement Greenberg while opposing tendencies he viewed in figures such as Lucy Lippard and proponents of Conceptual art. His prose combined polemic and scholarly citation, drawing on intellectual traditions linked to T. S. Eliot, Lionel Trilling, and conservative public intellectuals including Russell Kirk and Irving Kristol. Kramer frequently critiqued movements associated with postmodernism and multiculturalist programming promoted in institutions like National Endowment for the Arts and university galleries tied to SUNY campuses and private colleges such as Smith College and Princeton University. He engaged with debates about museums, curatorship, and pedagogy, addressing curators and directors including Thomas Messer, Marian Goodman, and Kynaston McShine.

The New Criterion and editorial leadership

In 1982 Kramer co‑founded The New Criterion with Samuel Lipman and served as its long‑time editor, establishing the magazine as a venue for conservative cultural criticism in dialogue with journals such as National Review, The New York Review of Books, and The Economist. Under his leadership, the publication featured essays on visual arts, music, literature, and theater, engaging figures like Leonard Bernstein, Susan Sontag, Harold Bloom, and critics across the political spectrum. Kramer used the platform to critique funding policies of agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts and to assess exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The magazine also published contributions from scholars affiliated with Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Harvard University.

Public controversies and debates

Kramer provoked controversies by publicly challenging artists, curators, and institutional policies; notable flashpoints included disputes over controversial exhibitions tied to figures like Robert Mapplethorpe, debates involving trustees and directors at the Whitney Museum, and arguments about the role of political advocacy in museum programming that involved commentators from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. He sparred with advocates of relativism and identity‑based art promoted by academics at institutions such as UC Berkeley and Rutgers University, and engaged in extended exchanges with critics like Peter Schjeldahl and Roberta Smith. Kramer also weighed in on legal and public funding controversies, intersecting with policy debates involving the National Endowment for the Arts and congressional hearings influenced by politicians such as Jesse Helms and Newt Gingrich.

Personal life and legacy

Kramer lived in New York City for much of his career, participating in civic and cultural institutions and maintaining friendships and rivalries with curators, critics, and artists across the American and European scenes, including ties to figures in London, Paris, and Berlin. His legacy is debated among scholars at departments such as NYU, Columbia University, and Princeton University and in publications including Artforum, October (journal), and The Burlington Magazine. Kramer is remembered for shaping conservative art criticism, influencing subsequent editors, critics, and institutions, and for sparking ongoing discussions about aesthetics, institutional authority, and cultural policy.

Category:American art critics Category:1928 births Category:2012 deaths