David Lee Craven, distinguished professor of art and art history at the University of New Mexico, died Saturday of an apparent heart attack while playing tennis, family members told the New Mexico Daily Lobo. He was 60 years old.
Craven became a professor at UNM in 1993 and was chairman of the Fine Arts Department at UNM for two years, the Daily Lobo said. He was the author of 10 books and more than 150 articles in scholarly journals.
A memorial service for Craven is planned for 2 p.m. Friday at UNM’s Memorial Chapel on campus, the Daily Lobo said.
He attained the rank of Distinguished Faculty in 2007, according to an online article on UNM Today.
He was recognized as a world authority in the fields of 20th century art from Latin America, post-1945 art from the USA, critical theory, as well as the philosophy of methods in art history and visual culture, UNM Today said.
His art history books include “Art and Revolution in Latin America, 1910-1990,” which was nominated ffor 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,” and “Dialectical Conversions: Donald Kuspit’s Art Criticism.”
Born in Alexandria, La., on March 22, 1951, to Peggy and Albert Craven, he lived with his family in Houston, then in Clinton, Miss., and in Oxford, Miss., where his father taught at the University of Mississippi.
He was preceded in death by his father, his sisters Anita and Peggy Melinda and his brother Jonathan, according to an obituary in the Albuquerque Journal.
He is survived by his mother, Peggy Craven of Chapin, S.C.; a sister, Laura Duncan of Irmo, S.C.; brothers Brian Craven of Eustis, Fla., and Paul Craven of Greensboro, N.C.; and special friends Dr. Susanne Baackmann and Hannah Baackman-Friedlander of Albuquerque, as well as several nieces and nephews, the obit said.
