Norman D. Daly, Cornell professor emeritus of art, died at Cayuga Medical Center, April 2, after a brief illness. He was 96 years old.

Daly taught painting and drawing in the Department of Art at Cornell for 57 years (1943-1999), 24 of them as an emeritus professor. He was the first recipient of the John Hartell Award for Distinguished Teaching in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.

Born Aug. 9, 1911, in Pittsburgh as the youngest of seven children, Daly started painting and drawing as a teenager. He majored in art at the University of Colorado, graduating in 1937, studied in Paris on a fellowship in 1937-38, and received an M.F.A. from Ohio State University in 1940.

He began exhibiting his paintings in New York in the 1940s; some of his paintings are represented in numerous permanent collections in U.S. museums.

In the 1960s he became interested in sculpture, working mainly with assemblages and marble carvings. This sculpture was the starting point for his most extensive project, the creation of an entire ancient civilization called Llhuros. Combining aspects of conceptual art with a determined attention to traditional aesthetic values, Llhuros came to be recognized as the foundation of "archaeological art." The project was exhibited widely in the United States and Germany in 1972-74. Elements of Llhuros were included in a retrospective of Daly's work at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell in 2004.

Predeceased by his wife, Helen (Gebbie) Daly, and a son; he is survived by a son and extended family.

A memorial event is being planned for sometime in June. Bangs Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Memorial donations can be made to a charity of one's choice.