Maurice Berger, who as a curator and a writer was a forceful voice against both overt and subtle racism in the art world and other arenas, died on Sunday at his home in Craryville, N.Y. He was 63.

His husband, Marvin Heiferman, said the official cause was heart failure. He said Mr. Berger had been exhibiting severe symptoms of coronavirus for five days but was not tested for the virus either before or after his death.

Mr. Berger, who was white, spent a lifetime being conscious of how race determines opportunities, attitudes and much more, in his own life and in society at large. His writing exploring those influences was blunt and provocative. There was, for instance, “Are Art Museums Racist?,” a 1990 essay in Art in America.

“Art museums,” he wrote, “have for the most part behaved like many other businesses in this country — they have sought to preserve the narrow interests of their upper-class patrons and clientele.” Who were, of course, mostly white.