Lawrence Alloway; Critic, Curator, Pop Art Innovator

Lawrence Alloway, 63, an art critic, curator and historian credited with coining the phrase “pop art.” Alloway, former art critic for The Nation and co-founder of the magazine Art Criticism, was an early champion of American art in the 1940s. He took the term “popular art,” which was used to characterize the work of younger artists working in commercial fields, and abbreviated it. A native of England, he moved to the United States in 1961 and the following year was named curator of the Guggenheim Museum. His books include “Topics in American Art Since 1945” and “Network: Art in the Complex Present.” In New York City on Tuesday of cardiac arrest.