Obituaries »
Artist Obituaries
William Turnbull 1/11/1922 – 11/16/2012
Scottish sculptor William Turnbull has passed away at age 90. Turnbull was born the son of a shipyard engineer in Dundee, Scotland and started his career as an illustrator for publisher DC Thompson. However,
Read More »
Lebbeus Woods 5/30/1940 – 10/30/2012
Lebbeus Woods the artist and architect known for his unique post apocalyptic architectural renderings recently passed away at age 72. Woods whose recent exhibition at Friedman Benda we reviewed in March 2012 was a
Read More »
Mersad Berber 1/1/1940 – 10/7/2012
Mersad Berber the Bosnian artist known for his excellent draftsmanship and handling of classical human models recently passed away at age 72. Berber was born in 1940 in the Bosnian town of Bosanski Petrovac.
Read More »
Angkarn Kalayanapong 2/13/1926 – 8/25/2012
Renowned Thai poet and artist Angkarn Kalayanapong has recently passed away at age 86 after a long struggle with heart disease and diabetes. Angkarn Kalayanapong was born in the southern province of Nakhon Si
Read More »
Jan Sawka 1946 – 8/9/2012
Jan Sawka the Polish-American artist has recently passed away in New York from a heart attack at age 65. Born in Zabrze into a shattered Poland after World War II, Sawka describes his early years,
Read More »
Robert Hughes 7/28/1938 – 8/6/2012
Robert Hughes the Australian lion of contemporary art criticism has recently passed away at age 74. Having cheated death once in a near fatal car crash in 1999 which left him in a coma
Read More »
Zsuzsi Roboz 8/15/1929 – 7/9/2012
The Guardian has reported the death of Hungarian artist Zsuzsi Roboz at age 82. Born in Budapest as the daughter of Imre Roboz the manager of the Vígszinház theatre, Zsuzsi and her mother were
Read More »
LeRoy Nieman 6/8/1921 – 6/20/2012
Best known for his brilliantly colored, stunningly energetic images of sporting events and leisure activities, LeRoy Neiman is probably the most popular living artist in the United States. His art is unique. It stands
Read More »
Hiroki Oda 4/19/1914 – 5/30/2012
Hiroki Oda a Japanese artist known for his early adoption of Western painting techniques recently passed away at age 98 from heart failure. Oda was born in the village of Senju in 1914. As
Read More »
George Wyllie 12/31/1921 – 5/15/2012
George Wyllie the Scottish sculptor known for his tongue in cheek works out of unexpected materials recently passed away after a short illness at age 90. Wyllie was born in Glasgow and the river
Read More »
Gulumbu Yunupingu c.1943 – 5/10/2012
Gulumbu Yunupingu the prominent Australian Aboriginal artist recently passed away. She was women’s leader from the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia and considered a guardian of many
Read More »
Tamás Szikora 11/24/1943 – 4/22/2012
Tamás Szikora a Hungarian artist who was widely exhibited and a two time recipient of a Pollock-Krasner grant recently passed away at age 69. His recent work consisted of a fascination with geometry
Read More »
Dagmar Hochová 3/10/1926 – 4/17/2012
Legendary Czech photographer Dagmar Hochová recently passed away at age 86. Horchová is well known for her candid social documentary black and white photos of children and old people in Czechoslovakia during the
Read More »
Mauricio Lasansky 10/12/1914 – 4/2/2012
Printmaker Mauricio Lasansky recently passed away at age 97. Lasansky, an Argentine native who spent the final 69 years of his life in New York and Iowa is perhaps best known for his series
Read More »
Thomas Kincaide 1/19/1958 – 4/6/2012
Thomas Kincaide the controversial American “Painter of Light” who claimed to be “America’s most-collected living artist” recently passed away at age 54 from natural causes. Kincaide rarely sold his original paintings, instead he produced
Read More »
Eduard Steinberg 3/3/1927 – 3/28/2012
The Russian artist Eduard Steinberg recently passed away in Paris at age 76 after a long battle with cancer. After beginning his career as a representational artist, he later switched to what he called
Read More »
Kåre Tveter 1/25/1922 – 3/21/2112
Kåre Tveter the Norwegian artist known for his minimalist landscapes dealing with light has passed away at age 90. He was known as a “light painter” because his works were often only comprised of
Read More »
Sid Couchey 5/24/1919 – 3/11/2012
The Press Republican is reporting that American cartoonist Sid Couchey has passed away at age 92 after a battle with cancer. Couchey was best known for his work with Harvey Comics, illustrating such well
Read More »
Jean Giraud aka Moebius 1938 – 3/10/2012
Jean Giraud aka Moebius the graphic designer behind futuristic films such as Alien and Fifth Element passed away at age 73 after a fight with cancer. Giraud a French native was introduced to to
Read More »
Ely Belyutin 1925 – 2/27/2012
Russian artist Ely Belyutin recently passed away at age 87 in Moscow. Belyutin was a champion of abstract art and founded The New Reality artistic academy in 1948. Politically he was a controversial figure
Read More »
Ken Price 2/16/1935 – 2/26/2112
American artist Ken Price has passed away at age 77. Price was best known for his colorful sculptures that were somewhat of a hybrid between traditional ceramics and painting as his process entailed painting
Read More »
Adam Adamowicz 3/9/1968 – 2/9/2012
The New York Times has reported that Adam Adamowicz, artist and graphic designer for the popular video games Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim recently passed away from complications with lung cancer
Read More »
Althea Wynne 10/6/1936 – 1/24/2112
Althea Wynne, a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors died in a car accident on her way home from a visit to her foundry to check on a recent commission. Wynne is
Read More »
William Theophilus Brown 4/7/1919 – 2/8/2012
William Theophilus Brown a long standing member of the San Francisco Bay Area art scene passed away at age 92. He was born in Moline, Illinois in 1919 to a father who was a
Read More »
Antoni Tàpies 12/13/1923 – 2/6/2012
Antoni Tàpies, the Catalan painter from Barcelona whose work covered many different styles over the 20th century has died at age 88. Tàpies delved into Primitivism, Surrealism, Dadaism, Arte Povera, and Minimalism over
Read More »
Mike Kelley 10/27/1954 – 1/31/2012
Mike Kelley, one of the artists who had become synonymous with the LA art scene recently passed away from an apparent suicide at age 57. Artistically, Kelley was at the top of his game
Read More »
Peter de Francia 1/25/21 – 1/19/12
The Guardian has announced that Peter de Francia, the long time professor at the Royal College of Art in London passed away at age 90 from complications with pneumonia. De Francia was born in France
Read More »
Koizumi Junsaku 1924-1/9/2012
Koizumi Junsaku was a Japanese artist who produced ceramics and paintings of landscapes and flowers. He is best known for his stunning ink paintings of dragons which decorate the ceilings of two of Japan’s
Read More »
Eve Arnold 4/21/1912-1/4/2012
Over a life that spanned nearly a century, Eve Arnold was a pioneering female phographer whose remarkable portraits covered almost all facets of humanity. Equally known for her portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Malcom
Read More »
James Rizzi 10/5/1950-12/26/2011
James Rizzi is huge in the United States, huger in Japan, and hugest in Germany, but that’s just the beginning. His cult is growing everywhere. There is even a Rizzi on Seinfeld, broadcast in
Read More »
Helen Frankenthaler 12/12/1928-12/27/2011
Helen Frankenthaler was a pioneer who was a distinctive female voice in the macho New York Abstract Expressionist scene in the 1950s. It was her unique application of paint that lead critic and former
Read More »
