Obituary of Max Kozloff

April 6, 2025

Max Kozloff (born June 21, 1933) died peacefully at home in Soho on Sunday, April 6, 2025. He was an art and photography critic, as well as a painter and photographer. Born in Chicago, Max received his BA and MA at the University of Chicago, and did graduate studies at the Institute of Fine Arts, NY University. He was the art critic of The Nation from 1961-70 and an associate and contributing editor of Artforum from 1963-74, then executive editor, 1974-76. He published articles in many other publications, including Partisan Review, Art News, Art in American, Film Quarterly, Film Culture, Sight and Sound, Aperture, Parkett, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Art on Paper, Revue des Arts, Light/Vision, Plurale, European Photography, Creative Camera, Closeup, New York Herald Tribune and Parnassus Poetry in Review. Additionally, he published many books on art and photography, including Jasper Johns (1969), Renderings, Critical Essays on a Century of Modern Art (1969), Cubism/Futurism (1972), Photography and Fascination (1979), The Privileged Eye (1987), Duane Michals, Now Becoming Then (1991), Cultivated Impasses (2000), New York Capital of Photography (2002), New Yorkers as Seen by Magnum Photographers (2003), The Theatre of the Face Portrait Photography Since 1900 (2007) and Vermeer, A Study (2010). Max Kozloff published two monographic books of his own photographs: New York Over the Top (2013) and A Carnival of Mimics (2020) and exhibited those works at various venues, including solo shows at Holly Solomon Gallery, NY (1977, 1979, 1981), Fleming Museum, U of Vermont (1981), Marlborough Gallery, NY (1982), Consejo Mexicano de la Fotografia, Mexico City (1986), P.P.O.W. Gallery, NY (1993), Centre for Photography as an Art Form, Mumbai (1996), Higher Pictures, NY (2011), Steven Kasher Gallery (2013), Art Institute of Chicago (2013). Max had one exhibition of his paintings, at DC Moore Gallery, NY (2021). He received fellowships and awards in critical writing from the Pulitzer Foundation (1962), Fulbright Foundation (1962-3), Frank Jewett Mather Award, College Art Association (1965), Ingram-Merrill Foundation(1966), Guggenheim Foundation (1968), National Endowment for the Arts (1973, 1984), Reva and Dave Logan Foundation (1983), and International Center of Photography (1990). He is survived by his wife Joyce Kozloff and son Nikolas Kozloff. The funeral will be held on Monday, April 14, 11 AM – 1 PM at Greenwich Village Funeral Home, 199 Bleecker St. For those who wish to make donations in Max’s name, a favorite charity was Doctors Without Borders.

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