Obituaries
Remembering Claes Oldenburg: reluctant Pop Art pioneer and maker of outsize sculptures
The artist denied that his huge sculptures of everyday objects were Pop Art, insisting he was not trying to make a comment consumerism or capitalism with them
William Klein, photographer who captured the bustle of New York City and brought high fashion into the streets, has died, aged 96
Klein, a native New Yorker, moved to Paris in the Second World War’s aftermath and forged an oeuvre spanning photography, film and painting
Remembering Queen Elizabeth II, the British sovereign who perfected the fine art of monarchy
Over seven decades, the monarch used ceremonial, media and heritage to project soft power around the globe
Remembering Michael Archer, member of a golden age of curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum, who has died, aged 85
For more than 20 years, Archer enriched the ceramics department of the V&A with important acquisitions and research on glass, pottery and the tin-glazed earthenware on which he was a world authority
Remembering Raymond Briggs: pioneering illustrator and creator of beloved book The Snowman
Briggs used his charming, low-tech visual style to devastating emotional effect in his adult, anti-war books as much as in his beloved children's tales and their film adaptations
Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel, who created famous Brezhnev-Honecker kiss mural on Berlin Wall, has died aged 62
The dissident painter suffered heart failure while being treated for Covid-19 in Germany
Issey Miyake, ground-breaking Japanese fashion designer and favourite of museum costume institutes, has died, aged 84
After surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as a child, Miyake turned to clothes as a modern, optimistic form of creativity, and revived the use of pleats to create wearable, free-flowing, unisex clothes
Jennifer Bartlett, a painter known for her conceptual approach and grids, has died, aged 81
Bartlett studied with some of the titans of Conceptual and Minimalist art, applying their lessons to her relentlessly inventive painting practice
Seminal Pop Art artist Claes Oldenburg has died, aged 93
“The one rule of my work is that it must not have any function,” Oldenburg said in an interview, “I begin by removing the function of the thing because it’s true function is to become an artwork.”
Brazilian art collector Gilberto Chateaubriand has died, aged 97
Chateaubriand, son of the MASP founder Assis Chateaubriand, held one of the most important collections of Brazilian Modern and contemporary art
Fulya Erdemci, the Turkish curator and former director of the Istanbul Biennial, has died
She will be remembered for her commitment to exploring the relationship between public space and contemporary art
Peter Brook, a giant of international theatre whose stage work moved in sympathy with the visual arts, has died, aged 97
Brook's influential "white-cube" 1970 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and his epic 1985 realisation of the Sanskrit epic The Mahābhārata find echoes in art history
Margaret Keane, widely popular painter of big-eyed figures, has died at age 94
For decades, Keane’s hugely lucrative painting practice was controlled by her husband, who took credit for her canvases
Sam Gilliam, a painter revered for draped canvases rich in colour, has died, aged 88
The abstract painter associated with the Washington Color School achieved global renown beginning in the 1970s for his unique uses of colour and canvas
Remembering Paula Rego: an artist who could realise wondrous and disturbing scenes with unflinching honesty
The Portuguese-born artist, who died this month aged 87, is known for her dark visual story telling, but was herself warm, curious and generous
Austrian collector Heidi Goëss-Horten has died, aged 81, days after her new museum opens
The Heidi Horten Collection in Vienna includes works by Andy Warhol, Lucio Fontana and Damien Hirst
Artist Paula Rego—known for her mythical depictions of modern femininity—has died, aged 87
The British-Portuguese artist, a key figure in The London Group collective, gained a huge retrospective at Tate Britain last year and is a key presence in this year's Venice Biennale
American painter Knox Martin has died aged 99
The artist was a New York School painter and longtime fixture of the New York art world who Robert Rauschenberg considered a “mentor”
John Harris—an architectural historian and eagle-eyed connoisseur—has died, aged 90
A scholar of Inigo Jones and William Chambers, Harris mounted landmark exhibitions based on the RIBA drawings collection that he so radically transformed
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan—the UAE's president who oversaw major cultural projects including Louvre Abu Dhabi—has died, aged 73
The art landscape of the United Arab Emirates came to prominence during the Sheikh's rule from 2004
Abdulamir Al-Hamdani, the revered archaeologist and former Iraqi culture minister, has died, aged 55
Hamdani, who served as Iraq’s culture minister from 2018 to 2020, played a vital role in rescuing, restoring and cataloguing the country’s ancient heritage
Grenville Davey, British sculptor, has died, aged 60
The self-effacing artist's subtle work beat flashier rivals such as Damien Hirst to win the Turner Prize
Hermann Nitsch, known for bloody and ritualistic performances that often confronted moral taboos, has died, aged 83
The revered avant-garde artist was prone to shocking audiences with the use of blood, carcases and viscera in his performances
Remembering Ashton Hawkins, art lawyer, longtime Metropolitan Museum counsel and friend of Andy Warhol
Hawkins, a pioneer in the field of art law, has died at age 84
Philip Hewat-Jaboor, chairman of Masterpiece London, has died
The art consultant and collector passed away after a brief, sudden illness last week
Delfina Entrecanales, arts patron who founded the Delfina Foundation, has died, aged 94
A uniquely generous supporter of the arts who had been likened to a contemporary Medici, Entrecanales gave hundreds of artists the time and space to create but never demanded works in return
Budi Tek, art collector, museum founder and tireless champion of Chinese art, has died aged 65
Tributes pour in for the Indonesian-Chinese businessman who founded the Yuz Museum Shanghai in 2014
Jim Denomie, Ojibwe artist who painted the ‘raw realities of America’, has died, aged 66
At the time of his death, following a battle with cancer, Denomie was preparing for a major solo museum show in 2023