Robert Pincus-Witten, Art Critic and Historian, Is Dead at 82

Robert Pincus-Witten, an art critic and historian who brought context and insight to the proliferation of styles and artists that began in the 1960s, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 82.

Leon Hecht, whom Mr. Pincus-Witten married in 2013, said the cause was undetermined. He said Mr. Pincus-Witten had been ill for some time.

Mr. Pincus-Witten, who wrote for Artforum magazine for nearly 50 years, was credited with coining the term Post-Minimalism to describe a range of ideas and practices that began emerging in the late 1960s in response to the cool, dispassionate Minimalism that had prevailed.

But that coinage was only his most frequently cited accomplishment. He spotlighted new artists and their work in diarylike pieces for Arts Magazine from the mid-1970s through the 1980s. He was a professor at the City University of New York for decades. He curated shows. He was a personal adviser to art collectors.

In all those guises, he brought a scholar’s perspective to his assessments of the contemporary. ...