Obituaries

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

Brice Marden, painter revered for his distinctive approach to abstraction, has died, aged 84

Marden rose to prominence in the 1960s and 70s, synthesizing elements of Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Minimalism and more into his own unique idiom

Jamie Reid, graphic designer who defined the visual character of the punk movement, has died aged 76

The artist's subversive collage work for the Sex Pistols' single 'God Save The Queen' was a defining image of 1970s protest

'A meteor blazing through the world': tributes pour in for the influential film producer Jess Search

The co-founder of The Doc Society and the architect behind numerous films by visual artists was diagnosed with a brain tumour in July

Joop Sanders, early member of Abstract Expressionist movement, has died, aged 101

An influential figure in the New York scene of the early 1950s, Sanders spent the latter half of the decade in Europe and consequently was often left out of narratives of the AbEx movement

Richard M. Barancik, the last living Monuments Man, has died, aged 98

He was part of a group that saved thousands of artworks during the Second World War from destruction and seizure by the Nazis

Ales Pushkin, nonconformist artist and activist, has died, aged 57

The dissident Belarusian artist, who once dumped manure in front of Alexander Lukashenko's office, died in prison under "unclear circumstances"

Silvio Berlusconi, politician and early proponent of 'culture war' rhetoric, has died, aged 86

The outspoken leader of three Italian governments between 1994 and 2011 was often publicly critical of contemporary art and architecture projects in Italy

Françoise Gilot, artist whose prolific career transcended early relationship with Picasso, has died, aged 101

Gilot, whose distinctive figurative paintings span eight decades, infamously dumped the famous Spanish artist

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Remembering Vivan Sundaram, one of India’s leading artists and a champion of the country’s post-independence visual culture

Grounded in the political activism of the 1960s, he wove cultural history, social biography and labour politics into monumental installation art

'The real departure will occur on its own, in its own time': pioneering artist Ilya Kabakov has died, aged 89

The chronicler of life in the Soviet Union was known for his "total installations", including a devastated room in a Communist apartment

Kenneth Anger, creator of visionary and transgressive films, has died, aged 96

The film-maker and moving image artist was best known for his boundary-pushing (and, according to some, blasphemous) 1963 film “Scorpio Rising”

Thomas Kong, who transformed a Chicago convenience store into an art environment, has died

Beloved in Chicago, the artist worked in a small corner shop that doubled as his studio

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Remembering Myriam Ullens, art collector, and philanthropist, who launched the first contemporary art museum in China

Belgian entrepreneur in fashion, food and art, co-founded the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, in Beijing, with her husband, Guy Ullens

Harry Belafonte, singer, actor and civil rights champion inspired by artists' involvement in social causes, has died, aged 96

Belafonte cited Pablo Picasso and his artist friend Charles White among the visual and performing artists whose support of social justice movements inspired his activism

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Remembering Barry Humphries, art lover, artist and creator of Dame Edna Everage, who has died, aged 89

Australian comedian and actor was a passionate champion of museums, libraries and the visual arts, and a collector of late 19th-century artists and authors

Kwame Brathwaite, photographer who encapsulated ‘Black is beautiful’ movement, has died, aged 85

The New York photographer pioneered lighting and developing techniques that helped transformed how Black figures were photographed and seen

Emily Fisher Landau, contemporary art collector and important Whitney Museum benefactor, has died, aged 102

Landau, whose discerning eye and aesthetic curiosity made her a fixture in the art world from the 1980s onward, began collecting after receiving an insurance settlement for a jewellery heist at her home

India’s ‘first installation artist’ Vivan Sundaram has died, aged 79

Multi-disciplinary practitioner was inspired by the 1968 Paris demonstrations to organise artist and student group protests during Indira Gandhi's Emergency rule of 1975-77

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Remembering Phyllida Barlow, one of the most significant, and original, British artists of recent years

The sculptor, erudite and irreverent, was known for the power and scale of her site-specific installations

Remembering Balkrishna Doshi, artist, teacher and father of modernist Indian architecture, who has died, aged 95

Innovative architect was at heart of rebuilding independent India, a protégé of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, and winner of the Pritzker Prize and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal

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Remembering Richard Verdi, art historian and long-time director of the Barber Institute, who has died, aged 81

An inspirational teacher, charismatic museum director, Poussin scholar and curator, he was working to the end

Phyllida Barlow—British sculptor who found global fame after retiring from teaching—has died, aged 78

Artist who taught Rachel Whiteread and Tacita Dean during a decades-long career at London's Slade School of Art, won critical recognition in her mid-sixties for her massive, site-specific installations