Obituaries
Marilyn Stafford, a pioneer of street and fashion photography, has died, aged 97
Social observation was key to the work of the recently rediscovered protégée of Francesco Scavullo and Henri Cartier-Bresson
Influential Düsseldorf dealer Hans Mayer—the first to show Warhol in Germany—dies aged 82
The gallerist is credited with introducing European audiences to post-war US artists
Ronald Feldman, art dealer who ‘championed big ideas’, has died, aged 84
Feldman, an early supporter of artists like Joseph Beuys and Chris Burden, opened his gallery in 1971 and quickly established himself as a gallerist willing to take risks
Pope Benedict XVI, for eight years proprietor in trust of the Vatican's library and art collection, has died aged 95
The German-born conservative pontiff, a noted theological scholar, tried to accommodate contemporary art but became a subject of satire
Remembering Vivienne Westwood, godmother of punk and designer to the art tribe, who has died aged 81
The outspoken and original couturier referenced historical costume along with portraiture and campaigned for free access to museums
Football legend Pelé, a muse for Warhol and street art icon, has died aged 82
Martin Parr and Juergen Teller are among the artists who captured the Brazilian star's gift for friendship and personal diplomacy
The artist Dorothy Iannone, hailed as a ‘freedom fighter’, dies aged 89
She confronted censorship issues including a legal battle over Henry Miller novel
Remembering Elizabeth II—a master of the art of monarchy—and the artists, historians, designers, gallerists, and critics who died in 2022
The artists Paula Rego and Sam Gilliam, the gallerist Virginia Dwan, the critic Peter Schjeldahl and the patron of the arts John Sainsbury were among the other influential figures lost to the art world this year
Maya Picasso, daughter of artist Pablo and important archivist of her father's legacy, has died, aged 87
Her relationship with her father is the subject of an ongoing exhibition at the Picasso Museum in Paris
Philip Pearlstein, whose nude portraits helped revive figurative painting, has died, aged 98
Pearlstein, a classmate of Andy Warhol’s who similarly worked against the grain of the dominant Abstract Expressionist style of the time, remained committed to representation from the late 1950s onward
Remembering Peter Schjeldahl: indispensable critic, poet, and lyrical observer of the embodied experience of art
His direct and personal style made him a well-respected chronicler of the US art scene for over 50 years
Artist Ashley Bickerton, who imagined new ways to lampoon and critique consumerism, has died, aged 63
The Indonesia-based artist, who rose to prominence in New York in the 1980s alongside Jeff Koons and Peter Halley, was diagnosed with ALS last year
British artist-polymath Tom Phillips—portrait painter, composer and poet—has died, aged 85
Phillips's masterpiece is A Humument, a 50-year recreation, redrawing and rewriting of a long-forgotten Victorian novel, that informed the artist's wider output, including an opera and his translation of Dante's Inferno
Dagny Corcoran, an influential art book dealer in Los Angeles, has died, aged 77
Her bookstore Art Catalogues, which she founded in 1977 and is still in operation, has long been a gathering place for the Los Angeles art community
Lee Bontecou—artist known for haunting, ominous wall sculptures made from industrial materials—has died, aged 91
The artist, who rose to prominence in the New York art scene of the 1970s, remained committed to an unclassifiable and otherworldly aesthetic
In memoriam: London art dealer and restaurateur Andrew Edmunds represented a special and vivid chapter in Soho’s history
The world expert on the prints of William Hogarth, James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson was a great and colourful character
Laila Shawa—a revolutionary Palestinian artist who found international fame—has died, aged 82
The artist and activist, described as the ‘mother of Arabic revolutionary art’ has work in the collections of the British Museum and the Ashmolean
Pierre Soulages, who found infinite possibility in black abstract paintings, has died, aged 102
The celebrated French artist remained committed to his singular formal pursuit for decades
Rodney Graham, influential Canadian conceptual artist with a wry sense of humour, has died, aged 73
After coming up among the Vancouver School’s photo-conceptualists, Graham struck out on his own singular, irreverent pursuits
Peter Schjeldahl, the revered art critic for the New Yorker, has died, aged 80
Following stints at Art News and the Village Voice, and as a poet, Schjeldahl joined the New Yorker in 1998, becoming one of the most influential art critics of his generation
Billy Al Bengston, painter who epitomised the visual lexicon of California culture, has died, aged 88
The artist was best-known for his abstract lacquered works and played a key role in the development of the Los Angeles art scene in the 1960s
Remembering Virginia Dwan: the US's first bicoastal gallerist
Hugely influential art dealer whose galleries in Los Angeles and New York launched Minimalism and Land Art in the US
Dimitrios Pandermalis, director and curator of the Acropolis Museum in Athens, has died, aged 82
Pandermalis, a revered archaeologist and professor, had also been outspoken in calling for the reunification of all the Parthenon marbles in Athens
Remembering Claes Oldenburg: reluctant Pop Art pioneer and maker of outsize sculptures
The artist denied that his huge sculptures of everyday objects were Pop Art, insisting he was not trying to make a comment consumerism or capitalism with them
William Klein, photographer who captured the bustle of New York City and brought high fashion into the streets, has died, aged 96
Klein, a native New Yorker, moved to Paris in the Second World War’s aftermath and forged an oeuvre spanning photography, film and painting
Remembering Queen Elizabeth II, the British sovereign who perfected the fine art of monarchy
Over seven decades, the monarch used ceremonial, media and heritage to project soft power around the globe
Remembering Michael Archer, member of a golden age of curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum, who has died, aged 85
For more than 20 years, Archer enriched the ceramics department of the V&A with important acquisitions and research on glass, pottery and the tin-glazed earthenware on which he was a world authority
Remembering Raymond Briggs: pioneering illustrator and creator of beloved book The Snowman
Briggs used his charming, low-tech visual style to devastating emotional effect in his adult, anti-war books as much as in his beloved children's tales and their film adaptations
Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel, who created famous Brezhnev-Honecker kiss mural on Berlin Wall, has died aged 62
The dissident painter suffered heart failure while being treated for Covid-19 in Germany
Issey Miyake, ground-breaking Japanese fashion designer and favourite of museum costume institutes, has died, aged 84
After surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as a child, Miyake turned to clothes as a modern, optimistic form of creativity, and revived the use of pleats to create wearable, free-flowing, unisex clothes