Distinguished Professor David Craven Dies

Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor of Art and Art His­tory David Lee Craven, 60, died Sat­ur­day, Feb. 11, of an appar­ent heart attack. A memo­r­ial ser­vice is set for Fri­day, Feb. 17 at 2 p.m. at the Alumni Chapel on the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico cam­pus. A recep­tion will fol­low at the Uni­ver­sity Art Museum. For those attend­ing the memo­r­ial, park­ing in C lot, near the UNM Alumni Chapel, is allowed from 1–4 p.m.

In lieu of flow­ers, dona­tions are being accepted to estab­lish an endowed grad­u­ate fel­low­ship in Craven’s name. Checks should be made out to “UNM Foun­da­tion” and be dropped off at the Art Office or at the memo­r­ial service/reception.

Craven joined the UNM fac­ulty in the Depart­ment of Art and Art His­tory in the Col­lege of Fine Arts in 1993, and attained the rank of Dis­tin­guished Fac­ulty in 2007. Prior, he taught at the State Uni­ver­sity of New York, where he was a full pro­fes­sor. He also taught at Duke Uni­ver­sity and served as a vis­it­ing lec­turer, pro­fes­sor or scholar-in-residence at the Uni­ver­sity of Edin­burgh, Hum­boldt Uni­ver­sität zu Berlin, Uni­ver­sität zu Bre­men, Trin­ity Col­lege in Dublin, Col­legium Budapest, Insti­tuto de Inves­ti­ga­ciones Estéti­cas in Mex­ico, Uni­ver­sity of Leeds and the Blan­ton Art Museum at the Uni­ver­sity of Texas at Austin.

Craven was a NEH Post-doctoral Fel­low in Art His­tory at Prince­ton after earn­ing his doc­tor­ate in Art His­tory from the Uni­ver­sity of North Car­olina, Chapel Hill, in 1979. He earned a master’s in Art His­tory from Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­sity in 1974 and earned his bachelor’s degree in his­tory from the Uni­ver­sity of Mis­sis­sippi in 1972, where he grad­u­ated Magna Cum Laude.

Flu­ent in Span­ish, Ger­man and French, Craven trav­eled the world as a vis­it­ing pro­fes­sor to give lec­tures in more than 100 uni­ver­si­ties and muse­ums in the U.S. and inter­na­tion­ally includ­ing Rus­sia, Mex­ico, Spain, Ger­many, Eng­land and France. He was prepar­ing for the pub­li­ca­tion in 2012 of six new arti­cles on art his­tory sub­jects in the United States, Mex­ico and Eng­land when he died.

“David was a man of let­ters and a cham­pion for social causes, beloved by all who knew him for his keen intel­lect, gen­uine sense of com­pas­sion and desire to help oth­ers. He was rec­og­nized by his peers as one of the most informed and inci­sive art his­to­ri­ans in the world,” said Kirsten Buick, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor and chair, Art and Art History.

Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Ger­man Stud­ies Susanne Baack­mann, said, “David was the most gen­er­ous per­son I know: gen­er­ous in spirit, gen­er­ous in praise and admi­ra­tion, gen­er­ous intel­lec­tu­ally, gen­er­ous in his enthu­si­asm for art, archi­tec­ture and many other cul­tural achieve­ments. His love for life and his work–two con­cepts that were syn­ony­mous in his mind–was as intense as it was infectious.”

Craven pub­lished 10 books and more than 150 arti­cles that have appeared in 25 dif­fer­ent coun­tries and trans­lated into 15 dif­fer­ent lan­guages led to his recog­ni­tion as a world author­ity in the fields of 20th Cen­tury Art from Latin Amer­ica, Post-1945 Art from the USA and Crit­i­cal The­ory, as well as Phi­los­o­phy of Meth­ods in Art His­tory & Visual Culture.

His art his­tory books are respected as author­i­ta­tive includ­ing the most widely read, Art and Rev­o­lu­tion in Latin Amer­ica, 1910–1990, which was nom­i­nated for a 2004 Mitchell Prize, as well as Diego Rivera as Epic Mod­ernist, The New Con­cept of Art and Pop­u­lar Cul­ture in Nicaragua Since the Rev­o­lu­tion in 1979, Poet­ics and Pol­i­tics in the Life of Rudolph Baranik, Abstract Expres­sion as Cul­tural Cri­tique: Dis­sent Dur­ing the McCarthy Period, which received broad crit­i­cal acclaim, and Dialec­ti­cal Con­ver­sions: Don­ald Kuspit’s Art Crit­i­cism.

Among the numer­ous awards and recog­ni­tions Craven received dur­ing his career are a Medal for Excel­lence by the state of New York in 1991 for his work at State Uni­ver­sity of New York/Cortland Col­lege, a Fac­ulty Acknowl­edge­ment Award at UNM in 2003, and in 2007 he was cho­sen to be the Rudolf Arn­heim Pro­fes­sor at Hum­boldt Uni­ver­sity in Berlin. He won more than 15 major national and inter­na­tional fel­low­ships and grants from orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing the Amer­i­can Coun­cil for Learned Stud­ies, the National Endow­ment for the Arts, the National Endow­ment for the Human­i­ties, the Rock­e­feller Foun­da­tion, the Min­is­te­rio de Cul­tura de España and the Insti­tuto Nacional de Bel­las Artes de Mexico.

Born in Alexan­dria, LA, on March 22, 1951, to Peggy and Albert Craven, David lived with his fam­ily in Hous­ton, Texas and then in Clin­ton, Miss., and Oxford, Miss., where his father taught at Ole Miss. His par­ents rec­og­nized an early apti­tude for art and young David began art lessons in fourth grade, lead­ing to his deci­sion to pur­sue art his­tory as his career.

Also an avid sports­man and ath­lete, Craven was the quar­ter­back of the Oxford High School foot­ball team and won MVP hon­ors in the 1969 sea­son. He also helped his high school bas­ket­ball team earn a place in the state championships.

David was pre­ceded in death by his father Albert Craven, his sis­ters Anita and Peggy Melinda, and his brother Jonathon. David is sur­vived by his mother Peggy Craven of Chapin, SC; sis­ter Laura Dun­can, her hus­band Lee, niece Car­o­line Dun­can and nephew Lee Dun­can of Irmo, SC; brother Brian Craven, his wife Pam, and nephews Jonathon, Allen and Mark Craven of Eustis, FL; brother Paul Craven of Greens­boro, NC; niece Edy Din­gus and nephew Charles Din­gus of Oxford, MS, and nephew John Phillip Din­gus of Roanoke, VA, as well as his spe­cial friends Dr. Susanne Baack­mann, and Han­nah Baackmann-Friedlander of Albu­querque, NM.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu