Obituaries
'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
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
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
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
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
Remembering Norman Dilworth, a champion of Concrete Art, who has died, aged 92
The Wigan-born sculptor became attuned to the modern movement in Europe after making his name with construction-based reliefs and sculptures in Britain
Rafael Viñoly—museum 'starchitect' who believed in experience over aesthetics—has died, aged 78
Uruguayan-born architect had an acute understanding of the visual arts and produced prize-winning buildings
Anthony Green—whose wife Mary was the muse for a unique set of narrative paintings—has died, aged 83
Nearly all his more than 600 irregularly-shaped canvases capture aspects of six decades of married life
'Godmother of Miami's art scene', Mira Lehr, has died aged 88
Lehr was the co-founder of the Continuum women's art collective and used her art to address the challenges of global warming and rising sea levels
Alfred Leslie, rising star of Abstract Expressionism who embraced figuration, has died, aged 95
After rising to prominence in New York’s AbEx scene of the 1950s, Leslie devoted much of his career to honing a style of monumental figuration that was decades ahead of its time
'A south London version of the fabled homunculus': Norman Rosenthal remembers the multi-talented artist Tom Phillips
In a six-decade career, the British artist also composed and performed music, published books and was an expert on African art
Michael Snow, avant-garde film-maker and sculptor, has died aged 94
The witty Canadian polymath caused a sensation with his 1967 underground film "Wavelength" and enjoyed public dispute over his city sculptures
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