Nicholas Calas; Poet and Art Critic

Nicholas Calas, 81, a poet and art critic whose work focused on young artists and new art movements. Calas contributed to Art Forum, Arts Magazine, Art International and other journals. Many of his essays on the deeper cultural meanings of modern art were collected in “Art in the Age of Risk.” Calas collaborated with anthropologist Margaret Mead on “Primitive Heritage,” a 1953 anthology of texts chosen for their literary and humanistic significance. In New York City on Saturday of heart failure.