Obituaries

Wayne Thiebaud, painter of lush desserts and disorienting cityscapes, has died, aged 101

Though he was often lumped in with the Pop artists who also rose to prominence in the 1960s, Thiebaud’s sensibility was distinctive, his appeal uniquely enduring

Frederick C. Baldwin, co-founder of Houston’s FotoFest, remembered for championing 'global vision' of photography

Baldwin, who has died at the age of 92, was a “shining example of generosity” driven by his experience of the Civil Rights Movement

Considering Greg Tate’s transformative impact on cultural criticism

The writer, musician and professor, who died earlier this month, wrote some of the most influential and creative art criticism of the past half-century

Lawrence Weiner, conceptual artist known for large and poetic text interventions, has died, aged 79

The artist’s trademark interventions, often consisting of graphic elements and enigmatic phrases, are among the most distinctive bodies of work in contemporary art

Bauhaus, Baroque and Marcel Duchamp: Virgil Abloh's life in art

The fashion designer, who died on Sunday at the age of 41, had exhibitions at some of the world's leading art institutions and collaborated with major contemporary artists

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Remembering Patrick Reyntiens, a pivotal artist in the history of stained glass

After making his name on historic projects at Coventry Cathedral and Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool, he became an innovative practitioner and influential teacher

Dave Hickey, influential critic who saw art as inseparable from everyday life, has died aged 82

He prized accessible writing and paired discussions of sports and food with his artistic analyses in widely read books like ‘The Invisible Dragon’ and ‘Air Guitar’

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Remembering Desideria Pasolini Dall'Onda, who battled to protect Italy's ecology and cultural heritage

Writer, translator of Virginia Woolf, and historian of gardening and farming she became a champion of conservation by co-founding Italia Nostra

‘A master of fire and light’: Quebec-born abstractionist Rita Letendre has died aged 93

The much-honoured artist created bold public works in Toronto and had a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2017

Latif Al Ani, who photographed Iraq’s mid-century modernising, has died aged 89

The photographer’s images of a cosmopolitan Baghdad before the rise of Saddam Hussein have been rediscovered in recent years

'Humanity is not a completed project': Remembering Jimmie Durham (1940-2021)

Durham, who controversially claimed Cherokee heritage, took a humorous and anti-monumental approach to sculpture

Jimmie Durham, artist-activist who made work on Native American themes, has died aged 81

American artist who self-identified as Cherokee and advocated for Indigenous rights through his work, has passed away in Berlin

‘Passion and compassion in her poetry and painting’—tributes paid to Lebanese artist Etel Adnan who has died, aged 96

The writer and abstract artist currently has an exhibition on at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York

Achim Borchardt-Hume (1965-2021): an appreciation

The untimely death of the distinguished Tate Modern curator, who died last week at the age of 56, "leaves an enormous gap", writes former Tate director Nicholas Serota

Lance De Los Reyes, graffiti artist known as Rambo, has died, aged 44

The artist painted cryptic poems on billboards and walls across New York City

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Remembering Owen Luder, architect whose gifts ran far wider than the Brutalist landmarks he is known for

Two of his most famous buildings, the Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth and the Trinity Car Park and Shopping Centre in Gateshead, were demolished earlier this century

Alan Powers

Shortly before her death, artist Julie Green concludes 21-year project depicting the final suppers of US death row inmates 

The painter, who died in October from ovarian cancer, also turned the first meal of exonerated prisoners into an artwork

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Remembering Kaari Upson, Los Angeles artist who created The Larry Project, a seven-year-long series exploring the life of a mysterious stranger

Artist who found her subject when trespassing in abandoned houses in San Bernardino, California, and whose formal obsessions included "couches upon couches upon couches"

Soedarmadji Jean Henry Damais, Indonesian curator and historian, dies aged 78

The last director of the Jakarta History Museum was a leading advocate of the archipelago's traditional arts, crafts and designs

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Remembering Phillip King, a prolific New Generation sculptor whose career as an artist and a teacher spanned more than six decades

An artist who was always fascinated by new materials, he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1968

Jon Wood

Former Bonhams owner Robert Brooks dies

The ambitious auctioneer started out in car racing before going into art and antiques, eventually retiring to his farm near Exmoor to rear a herd of beef cattle

Chuck Close, artist of monumental pictures and a monumental fall, dies at 81

The debate over the artist's place in post-1970 history, quiet since allegations against him were made in 2017, is sure to gather steam

Chuck Close, Photo Realist painter of large-scale portraits, has died, aged 81

The outsize artist retreated from public attention in his later years, following a diagnosis of dementia in 2015 and accusations of sexual harassment in 2017

Kaari Upson, Los Angeles artist who obsessively explored identity, family and Americana, has died, aged 51

The artist was known for years-long, multi-pronged projects based on singular figures—such as her mother or a mysterious man she dubbed “Larry”—and subjects

'Unafraid of upsetting the applecart': leading Rembrandt scholar Ernst van de Wetering has died, aged 83

The Dutch art historian, who worked on the Rembrandt Research Project for 47 years, made radical changes to the study of the Old Master painter

Dealer Inge Baecker, a pioneer of the Fluxus movement, dies in German floods

The gallerist was ill at home in Bad Münstereifel, one of the worst-hit towns

Christian Boltanski made a work that live-streamed his Paris studio. What will happen to it now that he has died?

After a boozy dinner in Paris, the French conceptual artist proposed the work to David Walsh, the founder of Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art—and it has been running for over a decade

Christian Boltanski, French conceptual artist, has died, aged 76

The artist, who was born just two weeks after Paris was liberated from Nazi control, was known for work that explored memory, loss and personal as well as cultural history

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Remembering Jackie Matisse, a pioneer of kite art and art in virtual reality who had a special feel for chance and the power of collaboration

She saw 'flying art' as a collaboration with wind and light and found ways to 'fly' her kites underwater and in galleries, kept in motion with blown air and mechanical reels