Sir Jack Baer, the London dealer who specialised in French and Italian Old Masters, died on 4 May, aged 91. After service in the Second World War, Baer attended the Slade School of Art. In 1948 he took over the running of the Hazlitt Gallery, which by 1973 he had built up into the international business Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox. Starting with £2,000 capital, Baer identified two then unfashionable areas in which to specialise—Italian Baroque and French Romantic painting—and helped to foster interest, selling works to museums worldwide. He retired from the business in 2001.
Martin Friedman, who transformed the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, from a provincial gallery to a world-renowned museum, died on 9 May, aged 90. Born in Pittsburgh, Friedman was first a curator at the Brooklyn Museum in 1956 before he joined the Walker in 1958. Three years later he became, at the age of 36, its director, and in the late 1960s began to build its collection of contemporary art with works by Warhol, Hockney, LeWitt, Rauschenberg, Sherman and others. In 1971 he opened the new museum building, and his expansion of the sculpture collection led to the creation of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, which opened in 1988. He retired in 1990.
Michal Hornstein, a businessman, collector and patron of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, died on 25 April, aged 95. Born in Krakow, Poland, in 1920, Hornstein escaped almost certain death in Auschwitz, hiding in the forests of Czechoslovakia and in Budapest until its liberation by the Soviets in 1944. After the war he married Renata Witelson. In 1951 they settled in Montreal where he founded a real-estate business and made a fortune. Through his wife, he became interested in the Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, which he made the basis of their collection. In 1970 he became a trustee of the museum; later vice-president and chairman of the acquisition committee. He donated 420 works to the museum and made large financial contributions towards more than 20 more.
Marisol (María Sol Escobar), the Venezuelan-American Pop and Folk artist, died on 30 April, aged 85. Born in Paris to Venezuelan parents, Marisol moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1946. She studied art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the Art Students League of New York. Leo Castelli featured her work in a 1957 show with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg (she called herself “Marisol” from this debut). Her assemblages were a combination of Pop imagery and pre-Columbian references embellished with drawings, fabric and found objects.
André Villers, the friend, collaborator and photographer of Picasso and his circle, died on 1 April, aged 85. Born in the Franche-Comté, Villers took up photography during a lengthy convalescence when he was 17. In 1953 he met Picasso and quickly became an intimate of his circle. He photographed the artist, his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, and their guests and neighbours, who included Miró, Chagall, Dalí, Man Ray, Le Corbusier, and others. With Picasso, he helped make “découpages”.
Rebecca Williams, the director of development at the Tate, died on 13 April, aged 44. Appointed in 2006, she and her team raised enormous sums for the Tate network: £45m for the Tate Britain campaign (2013), £18m for the renovation of Tate St Ives (ongoing) and £230m for the Tate Modern extension (to open 17 June).
Alvise Zorzi, the writer and scholar who dedicated his life to the study and defence of Venice, died on 14 May, aged 94. A descendant of one of the city’s most distinguished ancient families, Zorzi wrote more than 20 books, co-authored several others and wrote numerous articles. He was a member of Unesco’s consultative committee for Venice and for many years the president of the Association of International Private Committees for the Safeguarding of Venice.