Obituaries

Antoine Predock, architect of distinctive museums in the US and Canada, has died, aged 87

His Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Tang Teaching Museum and Tacoma Art Museum were typical of an approach that melded modernism and post-modernism into a characteristically unpredictable aesthetic

Lucas Samaras, tirelessly adventurous New York artist, has died, aged 87

The Greek American artist was always willing to try new forms and materials, working across sculpture, photography, performance, installation and more

Renowned Palestinian artist Fathi Ghaben, unable to leave Gaza for medical treatment, dies aged 77

The artist, hailed as the "Van Gogh of Gaza", suffered from chest and lung issues that needed urgent care

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Remembering Pope.L, the self-proclaimed 'friendliest Black artist in America'

His 50-year career was filled with transgressive performances, including the Times Square Crawls, which interrogated race and class

Remembering Jacob Rothschild, banker, collector, philanthropist, and a towering figure in the British art world

A scion of the famous banking dynasty, he led the National Gallery, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Waddesdon Manor

Günter Brus, central figure of Viennese Actionism, has died, aged 85

Brus was the last surviving founder of the movement, though he abandoned performance art after 1970

Carl Andre, giant of Minimalism who was tried for and acquitted of murder, has died, aged 88

Andre rose to prominence in the New York art world of the 1960s to become a totemic—and controversial—figure renowned for his material-driven sculptures

Robert Whitman, artist renowned for experiments with performance and technology, has died, aged 88

Whitman was a pioneer of the early performance art events known as Happenings and collaborated with Robert Rauschenberg and others on technologically ambitious projects

From Phyllida Barlow to Angela Flowers—remembering the artists, collectors, curators and gallerists who died in 2023

The artists Vivan Sundaram and Françoise Gilot, collectors Harald Falckenberg and Barry Humphries plus curator Vincent Honoré were also lost to the art world this year

Artists and curators pay tribute to performance pioneer Pope.L who has died aged 68

The artist, known for his Crawl series, treated 'absurdity of racism in an unflinching way’

Giovanni Anselmo, pioneer of Arte Povera, has died, aged 89

Italian artist, who won Venice’s Golden Lion award in 1990, is subject of a Guggenheim Bilbao retrospective next year

US artist Richard Hunt—creator of more than 160 public works—has died aged 88

The sculptor, who was committed to civil rights, recently completed a monument to Emmett Till

'The Charlie Chaplin of street photography': Elliott Erwitt remembered by those who knew him best

Martin Parr and Magnum colleagues remember the renowned American street photographer, who has died at age 95

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Remembering Henry Kissinger, master of art politics, whose Cold War diplomacy still had resonance in 2023

Kissinger, one of the most photographed men of his time, with an instantly recognisable pair of spectacles, was a powerful graphic gift to artists including Philip Guston

Radcliffe Bailey, an artist who explored the Black American experience across materials and forms, has died, aged 55

Known for toggling between works rooted in painting and more sprawling sculptures and installations, he was always concerned with the histories of objects and materials

UK Pop art pioneer Joe Tilson has died, aged 95

Art world figures pay tribute to "one of the most inventive printmakers"

Hamburg art collector and patron Harald Falckenberg dies aged 80

Falckenberg, one of Germany’s most important private art collectors, once said he was drawn to “outsiders and freaks"

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Remembering Park Seo-Bo, the ‘Father of Korean Contemporary Art’

A leading figure in the Dansaekhwa movement, he had a profound influence on the teaching of painting and the administration of art studies

Juanita McNeely, feminist artist who created visceral paintings inspired by personal hardship, has died, aged 87

A survivor of cancer and an illegal abortion, McNeely channelled her experiences into very personal work

Ida Applebroog, who made wide-ranging work with a feminist edge, has died, aged 93

The American artist was long associated with the feminist art movement but resented the label, preferring to form her own critical iconography

Park Seo-Bo, one of South Korea's leading artists, has died aged 91

The father of the Dansaekhwa movement was known for monochrome works with roots in Buddhist philosophy

Fernando Botero, the Colombian artist beloved for his rotund figures, has died, aged 91

Botero re-imagined art historical motifs but also responded to current events, including a series of visceral paintings in response to the Abu Ghraib torture scandal

Claude Ruiz Picasso, the artist’s son and manager of the Picasso estate, has died

The management of one of the world's most valuable art collections has now been passed to Paloma Ruiz Picasso, the last of Pablo Picasso's four children

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Remembering Jamie Reid, a protest artist to the end and the man behind the shocking visual impact of the Sex Pistols

The artist's gallerist recalls a visionary who built creative communities in London and Liverpool and had a profound effect on British popular culture

French general in charge of Notre Dame rebuild dies in a hiking accident

The death of Jean-Louis Georgelin might hamper efforts to reopen the cathedral by the end of 2024

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Remembering Kavita Singh, acclaimed historian of Indian art and museology, who has died, aged 58

An expert on Mughal, Rajput and Deccan painting traditions, she was unafraid to address rising nationalism in state-led cultural institutions

Angela Flowers, dealer at the heart of British art for 50 years, has died aged 90

Flowers built a global empire from Hong Kong to Hackney and always championed artists

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Remembering Françoise Gilot, who showed that being a muse of Pablo Picasso did not preclude being a great artist herself

The French painter and memoirist, who worked in Paris, London and the United States, showed elegance and ferocity in her work and a remarkable versatility as a colourist