Art Critic Max Kozloff, Chronicler of Post-Formalism Era, Dies at 91

Max Kozloff, the influential art historian and critic, has passed away at age ninety-one. He served as photography editor at Artforum from 1963 to 1974 while also writing for The Nation from 1961 to 1968. Kozloff's 1973 essay 'American Painting During the Cold War' connected Abstract Expressionism to U.S. political dominance, signaling a departure from formalist criticism. From the mid-1970s onward, he focused intensely on photography, creating and exhibiting his own photographic work. His images were displayed at venues including Holly Solomon Gallery, Marlborough Gallery, Steven Kasher Gallery, and the Art Institute of Chicago, which hosted the 2013 exhibition 'Max Kozloff: Critic and Photographer'. Kozloff taught extensively, notably developing the Master's programme in photography and related media at New York's School of Visual Arts. Curator David Campany praised his writing as 'clear, thoughtful, counter-intuitive and elegant', noting that 'nothing in the arts was alien to him'. Kozloff's career spanned the transition from modern art to conceptualism, making him a pivotal observer of that shift.