BBC executive, who has died aged 78, profiled artists in his Arena and Imagine series

The executive director of Zeitz Mocaa, Cape Town, had been due to announce her plans as curator of the international exhibition at the 2026 Venice Biennale

The acclaimed curator was due to present her plans for the exhibition next week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The painter was also a keen supporter of women artists

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”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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