John Douglas Crimp was an American art historian, critic, curator, and AIDS activist.
14 Facts About Douglas Crimp
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Douglas Crimp was known for his scholarly contributions to the fields of postmodern theories and art, institutional critique, dance, film, queer theory, and feminist theory.
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Douglas Crimp's writings are marked by a conviction to merge the often disjunctive worlds of politics, art, and academia.
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Douglas Crimp's career started after moving to New York City in 1967, where he worked as a curatorial assistant at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum and as an art critic, writing for Art News and Art International.
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In 1967, Douglas Crimp worked briefly for the couturier Charles James, helping him organize his papers to write his memoir.
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Between 1971 and 1976, Douglas Crimp taught at The School of Visual Arts, then enrolled in graduate school at the Graduate Center at CUNY where he studied contemporary art and art theory with Rosalind Krauss.
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Douglas Crimp was quickly appointed to be a co-editor, and he was a central figure in the journal until he left in 1990.
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Douglas Crimp was an important critic in the development of postmodern art theory.
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In 1985, Douglas Crimp was one of numerous art critics, curators, and artists who spoke at a General Services Administration hearing in defense of Richard Serra's controversial public sculpture Tilted Arc, which had been commissioned as a site-specific piece for Federal Plaza in New York City and was ultimately removed in 1989.
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Douglas Crimp argues that these two opposing positions should be allowed to co-exist.
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In 2016, Douglas Crimp published his memoir Before Pictures on the relationship between the art world and the gay world in New York in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Douglas Crimp describes New York City nightlife in the 1960s and 1970s during the rise of garage, house, and disco music, recreational drugs, and late nights alongside the Warhol crowd at the Max's Kansas City.
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Later, Douglas Crimp describes how he began to focus his attention to activism dedicated to rethinking AIDS.
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Douglas Crimp died from multiple myeloma at his home in Manhattan on July 5,2019.