Douglas Crimp, a groundbreaking art scholar, curator, writer, editor, educator and AIDS activist who challenged the field of art history by insisting on seeing it in a social context, died on July 5 at his home in Manhattan. He was 74.

Rosalyn Deutsche, an art historian and friend, said the cause was multiple myeloma.

In his writing, lectures and curating, Mr. Crimp made it his hallmark to disrupt conventions in contemporary art criticism. As curator of the seminal “Pictures” exhibition at the Artists Space gallery in Lower Manhattan in 1977, he explored the idea that the meaning of a work of art is dependent on its historical and social circumstances.

As editor of the influential contemporary arts journal October, published by MIT Press, he wrote landmark texts that challenged the notion of the museum as a neutral power in presenting art.

Mr. Crimp was an early advocate for the revolutionary advances in performance art, dance, video and photography that emerged in the 1970s and ’80s. In 1971, he was there when Joan Jonas presented “Choreomania,” a performance art piece using a moving, mirrored wall, in her SoHo loft; in 1973, in the West Village, he saw the dancer and choreographer Yvonne Rainer perform “Trio A,” a music-less piece featuring everyday movements like toe tapping, walking and kneeling.