In 1982, Hilton Kramer enjoyed one of the most enviable positions imaginable: As chief art critic of The New York Times, he stood at the pinnacle of arts journalism.
But he walked away from that job to co-found a small monthly, The New Criterion, using it as a platform to counter what he saw as the degradation — and increasingly hard-left politicizing — of popular culture.
From 1993 to 1997, he also wrote a weekly column for these pages called TimesWatch, which exposed and skewered — in his inimitable fashion — the Times’ liberal news bias.
Kramer, who died yesterday at 84, remained a highly influential figure in the world of art and culture, respected even by those who disagreed with his uncompromising judgment — and hailed by his admirers for his passionate independence.
As he once reportedly told Woody Allen, who asked whether he felt embarrassed whenever he met people whose work he had criticized: “No — I expect them to be embarrassed for doing bad work.” RIP.