CAA News

CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, scholars, curators, photographers, and other professionals and important figures in the visual arts. Of special note is an obituary written especially for CAA: Jay Garfield on Bernard Hanson.

• David K. Anderson, a contemporary art dealer from Buffalo, NY, who donated his art gallery and part of his collection to the University at Buffalo, died on August 15, 2009, at the age of 74
• Hyman Bloom, a Latvian-born American artist whose pre–Abstract Expressionist paintings were influenced by his interest in mysticism and spirituality, died on August 26, 2009. He was 96
• Humphrey Case, an English prehistorian and archaeologist who specialized in Neolithic Beaker culture, died on June 13, 2009, at the age of 91
• Michael Dailey, a teacher and abstract painter from Seattle who continued to paint while living with multiple sclerosis, died on August 9, 2009, at age 71
• John Edwards, a British abstract painter, sculptor, and teacher whose later work was influenced by his time spent in India, died on August 22, 2009. He was 71
• Barry Flanagan, a sculptor and printmaker whose interdisciplinary interests in dance, poetry, and literature influenced his work, died on August 31, 2009, at the age of 68. He experimented with Minimalism and land art but is best known for his bronze hares
• Donald Hamilton Fraser, a British artist and journalist for Arts Review who, at different times, employed both abstraction and figuration in his painting, died on September 2, 2009, at the age of 80
• Robinson Fredenthal, a sculptor from Philadelphia whose work was influenced by his struggle with Parkinson’s disease, died on August 31, 2009, at age 69
• Frederick Gore, an English art teacher, author, and plein-air painter of landscapes and cityscapes, died on August 31, 2009, at the age of 95
• Max Gurvich, a Seattle arts patron who supported the Seattle Art Museum and the Cornish College of the Arts, died on June 15, 2009, at age 91
• Bernard Hanson, a New England-based art historian, art critic, and professor, died on June 21, 2009. He was 86. Jay Garfield of Smith College has written a special text for CAA
• Charles Harrison, an art historian, critic, and former editor of Art-Language and Studio International, died on August 6, 2009, at age 67. He also taught, organized exhibitions, and was instrumental in creating the anthology Art in Theory 1900–1990, with Paul Wood
• James Krenov, a Russian-born woodworker, teacher, and writer whose furniture designs are responsive to the unique characteristics of the wood he used,  died on September 9, 2009, at the age of 88
• James Lord, a memoirist and biographer of Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti, died on August 23, 2009. He was 86
• Janet MacLeod, a British sculptor of bronze, marble, and silver who focused on the theme of regeneration, died in summer 2009 at the age of 72
• Michael Mazur, a teacher, painter, printmaker, and illustrator who specialized in monotypes, died on August 18, 2009. He was 73
• Richard Merkin, a teacher, painter, and illustrator whose colorful images appeared in various publications, including the New Yorker, died on September 5, 2009, at age 70. His extravagant and flamboyant style not only influenced his art, but also led him to write a style column for GQ
• Milo M. Naeve, a former curator of American art at the Art Institute of Chicago, died on August 10, 2009. He was 77
• Mario Cravo Neto, a Brazilian photographer whose work, often spiritual, documented the people of the Bahia region where he was from, died on August 9, 2009, at age 62
• Alexander Podlashuc, a South African artist, teacher, and cofounder, with his wife, of the Bloemfontein Group, died on September 5, 2009, at the age of 79
• Willy Ronis, a French photographer and former photojournalist who documented street scenes in Paris, died on September 12, 2009. He was 99
• Buky Schwartz, an Israeli sculptor and video artist, died on September 2, 2009, at the age of 77
• Paul Shanley, a former publisher of the magazines Art in America and Arts, died on September 2, 2009. He was 83
• David Thomson, a British writer on art and architecture of the Renaissance and a lecturer on art history, died in summer 2009, at age 57
• Maurizio Valenzi, a Tunisian-born painter and a communist politician, died on June 23, 2009. He was 99
• Christina Von Hassell, an art critic and auction reporter in New York, died on August 15, 2009, at the age of 85
• Leslie Worth, an English watercolor artist, teacher, former president of the Royal Watercolour Society, and author of The Practice of Watercolour Painting, died on July 21, 2009, at age 86

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.

CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, art historians, curators, photographers, architects, and other professionals and important figures in the visual arts.

• H. T. Cadbury-Brown, a British modernist architect, died on July 9, 2009. He was 96
• James Conlon, director of the Visual Media Center at Columbia University, died on July 17, 2009, at the age of 37
• Merce Cunningham, an avant-garde choreographer and dancer, died on July 26, 2009. He was 90
• Michael Dailey, a painter and teacher based in Seattle, died on August 9, 2009, at the age of 71
• Julian Dashper, a New Zealand artist, died on July 30, 2009. He was 49
• Heinz Edelmann, an illustrator and professor who worked on the film Yellow Submarine, died on July 21, 2009, at the age of 75
• Kenneth Garlick, a scholar and keeper of Western art at the Ashmolean Museum, died on July 22, 2009, at age 92
• Charles Gwathmey, an American modernist architect, died on August 3, 2009, at the age of 71
• Earl Haig, a British soldier and painter, died on July 9, 2009. He was 91
• Otto Heino, a Californian potter and educator, died on July 16, 2009, at the age of 94
• Francisco Hidalgo, a Spanish-born French cartoonist and photographer, died on July 25, 2009. He was 80
• Ingeborg Hunzinger, a German sculptor, died on July 19, 2009. She was 94
• Marcey Jacobson, a self-taught photographer who worked in Mexico, died on July 26, 2009, at age 97
• Bill Jay, a photographer, writer, and former editor of Creative Camera, died on May 10, 2009, at age 68
• Amos Kenan, an Israeli writer and artist, died on August 4, 2009, at the age of 82
• Tamara Krikorian, a video artist and public-art curator in Wales, died on July 11, 2009. She was 65
• John Lidzey, an English artist and teacher who was known for his watercolors, died on April 5, 2009, at age 74
• Michael Martin, a New York graffiti artist known as Iz the Wiz, died on June 17, 2009. He was 50
• Cecile McCann, a Californian artist and publisher of Artweek magazine, died on July 2, 2009. She was 91
• Tyeb Mehta, a major painter in postcolonial modern art in India, died on July 1, 2009, at the age of 84
• Leo Mol, a renowned Canadian sculptor, died on July 4, 2009, at the age of 94
• Charles Huntley Nelson, an artist and professor of art at Morehouse College, died on July 30, 2009. He was 39
• Joan O’Mara, a professor of art history at Washington and Lee University, died on May 24, 2009, at the age of 63
• Chris Plowman, a British artist and teacher, died in mid-July 2009. He was 56
• Constantine Raitzky, a former exhibition designer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died on June 29, 2009, at age 78
• Julius Shulman, a photographer of modernist architecture, died on July 15, 2009, at the age of 98
• Dash Snow, a New York–based artist, died on July 13, 2009. He was 27

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.

CAA recognizes the personal and professional achievements of the following artists, art historians, critics, curators, and collectors in the visual arts:

• Gilbert Alfred Bouchard, a Canadian art critic who wrote for the Edmonton Journal for nearly twenty-five years, has died. He was 47
• Robert Colescott, an American painter who represented the United States at the Venice Biennial in 1997, died on June 4, 2009, in Tucson, Arizona. He was 83
• Louise Deutschman, a curator and director of Waddell Gallery, Alex Rosenberg Gallery, and Sidney Janis Gallery, died on May 10, 2009, at the age of 92
• Ellen D’Oench, a curator for the Davison Art Center and adjunct professor of art at Wesleyan University, died on May 22, 2009, at age 78
• Johnny Donnels, a New Orleans–based photographer, died on March 19, 2009. He was 84
• Arthur Erickson, a modernist Canadian architect who designed many buildings in Vancouver, died on May 20, 2009, at age 84
• Patrick Farrow, a sculptor and gallery owner who was Mia Farrow’s brother, died on June 15, 2009, in Castleton, NH. He was 66
• Ib Geertsen, a Danish abstract painter who was associated with the Konkrete movement, died on June 3, 2009, at age 90
• Frederick Hammersley, a painter who was one of the four Los Angeles–based Abstract Classicists, died on May 31, 2009. He was 90
• William Hemmerling, a Southern folk artist based in Louisiana, died on June 15, 2009, at the age of 66
• Mary Henry, a geometric abstract painter based in the Pacific Northwest, died on May 20, 2009. She was 96
• David Ireland, a sculptor and conceptual artist based in San Francisco, died on May 17, 2009. He was 78
• Pirkle Jones, a California photographer who focused on social activism, died on March 15, 2009, at the age of 95
• Mildred Schiff Lee, an art collector and philanthropist who lived in Palm Beach, FL, died on May 7, 2009. She was 89
• Sam Maloof, a modernist furniture designer and woodworker based in southern California, died on May 21, 2009, at age 93
• Frank Herbert Mason, a painter and longtime instructor at the Art Students League in New York, died on June 16, 2009. He was 87 or 88
• Margaret Mellis, an influential figure in modern British art, died on March 17, 2009, at age 95
• John Michelini, a landscape painter from New Hampshire, died in mid-May 2009, at the age of 43
• Philip Stein, a muralist whose work appears at the Village Vanguard in New York, died on April 27, 2009. He was 90

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.

CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, art historians, and theorists. Of special note are two obituaries written especially for CAA: Richard R. Ranta on Carol Purtle, and Clark V. Poling on John Howett.

• Ernie Barnes, an artist who was also a professional football player, died on April 27, 2009, at the age of 70
• John Howett, a professor emeritus of art history at Emory University, died on April 8, 2009, at the age of 82
• Jack Prip, a silversmith who taught for many years at the Rhode Island School of Design, died on April 8, 2009. He was 86
• Carol Purtle, a professor of art history at the University of Memphis, died on December 12, 2008, at the age of 69
• David W. Scott, an artist, art historian, and founding director of the National Museum of American Art, died on March 30, 2009. He was 92
• Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, a literary theorist and pioneer of queer studies, died on April 12, 2009, at the age of 58
• Honoré Sharrer, a figurative American artist who rose to prominence in the 1940s, died on April 17, 2009. She was 88

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.

CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, scholars, and architects. Of special note is Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and June Hargrove’s obituary for CAA on the Swiss art historian Hans A. Lüthy.

• Robert Delford Brown, an artist who helped create Happenings in the early 1960s, was found dead in Wilmington, North Carolina, on March 24, 2009. He was 78
• Hanne Darboven, a German artist who was a major figure in Conceptual art, died on March 9, 2009, near Hamburg. She was 67
• Johnny Donnels, a New Orleans photographer, died on March 19, 2009, at the age of 84
• Lorenz Eitner, a professor who rebuilt the Stanford University Art Department and directed the school’s museum, died on March 11, 2009. He was 89
• Sverre Fehn, a Norwegian architect who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, died on February 23, 2009, at age 84
• Mary Hambleton, an artist, teacher, and Guggenheim fellow, died on January 9, 2009. She was 56
• Helen Levitt, an American photographer whose first solo exhibition was at the Museum of Modern Art in 1943, died on March 29, 2009, in New York. She was 95
• Hans A. Lüthy, a Swiss art historian, died on March 8, 2009
• Stephen M. Panella, an artist based in Aurora, Illinois, died on November 29, 2008, at the age of 34
• Susan Peterson, a ceramic artist, writer, and professor, died on March 26, 2009, in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was 83

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.

Below is a list of recent deaths in the arts, with a link to each person’s published obituary:

• Lucille Virginia Burton, a curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died on February 22, 2009, at the age of 90
• Schuyler Chapin, a cultural affairs commissioner for New York City and a dean of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, died on March 7, 2009. He was 86
• William de Looper, an artist associated with the Washington Color School and a curator for the Phillips Collection, died on January 30, 2009, at age 76
• Louisa Edwards, an art dealer at McIntosh Gallery in Atlanta who promoted black artists, died on February 23, 2009. She was 83
• Sverre Fehn, a Norwegian architect who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, died on February 23, 2009, at age 84
• Virgil Grotfeldt, a painter and sculptor based in Houston, Texas, died on February 23, 2009. He was 60
• Mary Hambleton, an artist and a professor of art at Parsons the New School Design, died January 9, 2009, at the age of 56
• Judith Hoffberg, an art librarian, curator, and editor of the journal Umbrella who championed artist’s books, died on January 16, 2009. She was 74
• Howard Kanovitz, a Photo Realist painter who emerged in the 1960s, died on February 2, 2009, at the age of 79
• Max Neuhaus, a percussionist and a pioneer of sound art, died on February 3, 2009, at the age of 69
• Olga Raggio, a scholar who taught at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and a curator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died on January 24, 2009. She was 82
• George Schneeman, a poet and painter based in New York, died January 22, 2009, at age 74
• Franz-Joachim Verspohl, an art historian who taught at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena in Germany, died in February 2009
• Dina Vierny, an artist’s model who inspired the sculptor Aristide Maillol, died on January 20, 2009. She was 89

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.

CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, scholars, designers, architects, philanthropists, and collectors.

• Joan Abelló, a Spanish painter who lived in Barcelona, died on December 25, 2008, one day before he would have turned 86
• Leonard E. B. Andrews, a collector of Andrew Wyeth’s “Helga Pictures” and an arts philanthropist, died on January 2, 2009, in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He was 83
• Manjit Bawa, an Indian figurative painter of mythological and Sufi spiritual themes, died on December 29, 2008, in New Delhi. He was 67
• Aldo Crommelynck, an artist and master printer who worked with artists ranging from Matisse, Picasso, and Miró to Jim Dine, Chuck Close, and Terry Winters, died on December 22, 2008, in Paris, France. He was 77
• Hannah Frank, a Scottish artist and sculptor, died on December 18, 2008. She was 100
• Betty Freeman, an art collector and supporter of twentieth-century music, died on January 3, 2009, at the age of 97
• Shigeo Fukuda, a graphic designer and poster artist, died on January 11, 2009, in Tokyo, Japan. He was 76
• Betty Goodwin, a highly acclaimed Canadian artist, died on December 1, 2008, at the age of 85
• Robert Graham, a Los Angeles–based artist who focused on monumental public bronze sculpture, including those depicting Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Joe Louis, and Charlie Parker, died on December 27, 2008. He was 70
• Robert Gumbiner, a physician, healthcare innovator, and founder of the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, died on January 20, 2009. He was 85
• Jan Kaplický, a Czech architect whose radical, organic building forms can be seen across Europe and the UK, died on January 14, 2009, at the age of 71
• Michael Levy, an art historian and director of the National Gallery in London from 1973 to 1987, died on December 28, 2008, at the age of 81
• Pierre Mendell, a graphic designer and poster artist who worked on the visual identity of the International Design Museum in Munich, Germany, died on December 19, 2008. He was 79
• Govinder Nazran, an illustrator and designer turned fine artist, died on December 30, 2008, at the age of 44
• Ann Sperry, a New York–based sculptor and feminist whose work was collected by art institutions nationwide, died on November 27, 2008
• Coosje van Bruggen, an art historian, critic, and artist who collaborated with her husband Claes Oldenburg, died on January 10, 2009, in Los Angeles. She was 66
• Andrew Wyeth, a respected and reviled American realist painter, died on January 16, 2009, at his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. He was 91
• Ray Yoshida, a painter and collage artist who taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for many years, died on January 10, 2009, in Kauai, Hawai‘i. He was 78

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.

CAA recognizes the lifetime professional and personal achievements of the following artists, art historians, curators, educators, and critics, who recently passed away.

• George Brecht, an artist who was a principle member of Fluxus, died on December 5, 2008, at age 82 in Cologne, Germany, where he had been living
• Mildred Constantine Bettelheim, a former curator of design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a CAA member since 1938, died on December 10, 2008. at her home in Nyack, NY. She was 95. A special obituary from Linda Downs, CAA executive director, has been published
• Derek Davis, a self-taught British ceramicist and painter, died on September 3, 2008, at age 82
• Lawrence Fane, an expressionist sculptor who worked with steel, bronze, wood, and concrete, died on November 28, 2008, in New York at age 75
• François-Xavier Lalanne, a French artists who created surrealistic animal sculptures in bronze that doubled as functional objects, and who was also well known in the fashion world, died on December 7, 2008, at his home in the village of Ury, south of Paris. He was 81
• William H. Pierson Jr., a member of the “art mafia” at Williams College who, with Whitney S. Stoddard and S. Lane Faison, Jr., helped to shape a generation of museum curators and directors, died on December 3, 2008, in North Adams, Massachusetts. He was 97 and resided in Williamstown
• Warren M. Robbins, founder of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, died on December 4, 2008, in Washington, DC. He was 85
• Kathleen Michelle Robinson, an art historian of nineteenth-century art and a curator at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, died on November 16, 2008, in Leavenworth, Kansas. She was 57
• Willoughby Sharp, an artist, curator, teacher, and publisher of Avalanche magazine, died on December 17, 2008, in New York. He was 72
• Terry Toedtemeier, a photographer, professor, geologist, and curator of photography at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, died on December 10, 2008, at the age of 61
• Jorn Utzon, an architect who designed the Sydney Opera House in Australia, died in Copenhagen, Denmark, on November 29, 2008, at the age of 90
• Cornelius C. Vermeule III, a curator of classical antiquities at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for over four decades, died on November 27, 2008, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 83

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.

CAA recognizes the lifetime professional and personal achievements of the following artists, art historians, curators, educators, and critics, who recently passed away.

• Tracey Baran, a contemporary art photographer, died on November 18, 2008, at the age of 33
• Don Baum, a Chicago artist, teacher, and curator who exhibited early work by the Hairy Who, died on October 28, 2008. He was 86
• Cundo Bermudez, a second-generation modern artist from Cuba, died on October 30, 2008. He was 94
• Terry Fox, an American conceptual artist, died on October 14, 2008, in Cologne, Germany, at the age of 65
• Walter Gabrielson, a California-based artist and teacher, died on November 12, 2008, at age 73
• Ludger Gerdes, a German painter and sculptor, died in October 2008 at the age of 54
• Grace Hartigan, an Abstract Expressionist painter, died on November 16, 2008. She was 86
• James Johnson, an art historian, curator, and former dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Connecticut, died on October 8, 2008, at the age of 92
• Jan Krugier, a Swiss art dealer who displayed and sold old-master drawings, African art, and modern and contemporary art, died on November 15, 2008. He was 80
• Bill Martin, a landscape painter based in Mendocino, California, died on October 28, 2008, at age 65
• Muriel Oxenberg Murphy, who cofounded the American painting and sculpture department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died in October 2008. She was 82
• Ben Schaafsma, program director for the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York, died on October 25, 2008, in New York. He was 26
• Joel Weinstein, an art critic and publisher of the magazine Mississippi Mud, died on October 31, 2008, at age 62.

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.

CAA recognizes the lives and careers of the following individuals in the arts, all of whom recently passed away.

• Albert Boime, an art historian and longtime professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who researched the social history of art, died on October 18, 2008. He was 75
• Robert H. Chaney, a Houston business man who collected contemporary Asian and British art, died October 22, 2008
• Patricia Faure, a Los Angeles–based art dealer, died October 21, 2008, at the age of 80
• Jason Gleeson, an Australian artist and art critic who helped shape the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, died on October 20, 2008, a month shy of his 93rd birthday
• Ardeshir Mohasses, an Iranian-born political cartoonist and satirist whose work was the subject of a recent exhibition at the Asia Society in New York, died on October 9, 2008. He was 70
• Iba Ndiaye, a highly influential modern painter from Senegal who also lived and worked in Paris, died October 5, 2008, at the age of 80
• Paritosh Sen, a pioneering and well-known Indian artist, died October 22, 2008. He was 80.

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.