Obituaries

Zurab Tsereteli, Georgian-born artist and Russian patriot, has died aged 91

Artist, who also ran museums and institutions in Russia, was best known for his monumental sculptures, including a 30m-high memorial to victims of 9/11 in the US

Guy Ullens, collector and patron of Chinese contemporary art, has died, aged 90

The Belgian businessman co-founded Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in 2007 with his wife Myriam Ullens

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Remembering Pope Francis, for 12 years head of the Catholic church and proprietor in trust of the Vatican's library and art collections

The Argentinian pontiff was a powerful progressive voice in world politics, the first Jesuit priest to be spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics and the first from the Americas or the southern hemisphere to hold the office

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Remembering Val Kilmer: film star, artist, collector and subverter of the male archetype

The ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Heat’ star was a fixture on the Los Angeles contemporary art scene—and made his own art exploring themes such as his rich heritage

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Avast me hearty: much loved National Maritime Museum curator gets touching send off

Visitors to the museum's pirates exhibition may spot ongoing tributes from staffers

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Remembering Rosalind Savill, the porcelain expert who transformed the Wallace Collection

During her 19-year tenure as its director, she turned a sedate institution into a vibrant tribute to the culture of 18th-century France

Remembering Jean-Claude Saintilus, Haitian artist and member of the Atis Rezistans collective, who has died, aged 64

Artist of memorials to family memory and sprits exhibited at the 2011 Venice Biennale, the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, Documenta Fifteen (2022) and the Ghetto Biennale, in Port au Prince

Remembering Jack Vettriano, an immensely popular artist whose market success reflected 'an appetite for the glamorous'

The sale of “The Singing Butler” at Sotheby’s in 2004, for a record price for a painting by a Scottish artist, caused a sensation and turned attention on Vettriano's critical and institutional neglect

Mel Bochner, conceptual artist known for text paintings and wry humour, has died, aged 84

Bochner was a pioneer of conceptual art, creating works rooted in information systems and decontextualised language

Walter Robinson, sharp-eyed painter and critic, has died, aged 74

Robinson, one of the Pictures Generation artists, made brightly irreverent paintings; as a writer, he chronicled the New York scene for decades and coined the term “Zombie Formalism”

Remembering Leonid Bazhanov, larger-than-life curator who pushed Russian contemporary art in new directions

The death of Bazhanov, who founded institutions including the groundbreaking National Centre for Contemporary Art, follows that of two other leading figures of the Conceptualist movement

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Remembering Colin Renfrew, a lover of Modern art who revolutionised archaeology

His championing of radiocarbon dating and other new scientific approaches demonstrated the untenability of the conventional explanation for cultural change

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, pathbreaking Native American artist, has died, aged 85

A champion of contemporary Indigenous artists, prolific creator across a range of media and relentless critic of dominant US ideology, Smith received institutional support and success late in life

Jo Baer, painter who pivoted from abstraction to ‘radical figuration’, has died, aged 95

Baer was equally renowned for her work in Minimalist abstraction and figurative painting

Aaron De Groft, Orlando Museum of Art director fired in Basquiat forgery scandal, has died, aged 59

Following successful stints at museums in Virginia and on Florida’s Gulf Coast, De Groft’s career became mired in the Basquiat fakes fiasco

David Lynch, artist and film-maker who portrayed America’s dark side with surreal humour and violence, has died, aged 78

Lynch trained as a painter before becoming a successful film-maker and ultimately returning to visual art in recent decades

Oliviero Toscani, Italian photographer known for his provocative fashion campaigns, dies aged 82

His work for brands such as Benetton sparked conversations about issues including the Aids crisis and anorexia

Pippa Garner, art and gender provocateur, has died, aged 82

Garner's witty deviations in form, text and body addressed the consumerism and sameness plaguing US culture

Joe Average, Canadian artist and Aids activist, has died, aged 67

Known for his bold, bright-hued paintings, prints and murals, Average was a pillar of Vancouver’s creative community

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Frank Auerbach's son is busting myths about the late artist

The late artist was actually quite sociable and had stopped producing "thick" paintings decades ago, says his only child

Jimmy Carter, the US president and Renaissance man who believed in art and rock and roll, has died, aged 100

The Southern Baptist peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, was a dedicated amateur portraitist and made a deep cultural impact when in office

In memoriam: remembering art world figures who died in 2024

Faith Ringgold, Frank Auerbach, Richard Serra, Barbara Gladstone and Lorraine O’Grady were among those who died this year

Zilia Sánchez, Cuban artist renowned for shaped, abstract canvases, has died, aged 98

Sánchez, who fled Cuba and ultimately settled in Puerto Rico, only achieved widespread critical acclaim late in her career

Lorraine O’Grady, conceptual artist who dissected language and dualities, has died, aged 90

O’Grady, who devoted herself to art in her early forties, spent the ensuing decades making incisive works that spanned photography, collage, performance and more

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Remembering Joseph Rykwert, influential writer and teacher on the theory of architecture

Warsaw-born RIBA gold medal winner, who became the professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, changed architectural understanding

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Remembering Marc Camille Chaimowicz, the godfather of contemporary conceptual art

The French-born London-based artist merged the once-siloed worlds of art and design to create inimitably intimate participatory experiences

Remembering Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, groundbreaking director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London

Charismatic leader who steered the museum through a difficult period in the 1980s, and later became a university vice-chancellor

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Remembering Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, the Unesco boss who fought for the dispossessed

The headline-making director-general of Unesco, who clashed with Reagan and Thatcher, died recently at the age of 103

Remembering Frank Auerbach, one of the leading artists of his generation, who has died aged 93

The German-born British painter, a leading figure in the School of London, produced some of the most enduring and perceptive observations of what it meant to be alive during his time