Lester D. Longman Dies; Ex-UCLA Art Professor, Author

Lester Duncan Longman, retired chairman of UCLA’s art department whose letter to the New York Times in 1961 questioning the integrity of art criticism touched off a national furor, is dead.

Longman, who established a national reputation at the University of Iowa before moving to UCLA in 1958, was 81 and died Jan. 27, the university announced this week.

Longman, who retired in 1973, founded the College of Fine Arts at UCLA in 1961. He also was instrumental in introducing the master of fine arts degree at the school and was a prominent figure in the planning and design of the UCLA art galleries, now the Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery.

In April, 1961, he wrote the New York Times challenging the support that many of the nation’s leading art critics and teachers were lending to the schools of Abstract Expressionism, action painting and Neo-Dadaism.

Longman claimed that he had surveyed many of his colleagues who “now privately question (their) views . . . but cannot afford to express openly their true opinions. . . .”

Longman was known for his writings in the art field, including such books as “History and Appreciation of Art,” “Outline of Art History” and “911 Questions on Art.”

Longman, who lived in Pacific Palisades, is survived by his wife, Helen, and three sons.