Obituaries

Lyn Kienholz, champion of art in Southern California, has died at 88

She founded the LA History Project, which led to the exhibition series Pacific Standard Time

Susan Hiller, a ‘paraconceptualist’ who abandoned anthropology in favour of art, has died, aged 78

“In art, the viewer can be forced into a situation that creates empathy, which cannot be done in the social sciences,” she said

'Authority, concision and style': historian Theodore K. Rabb dies, aged 81

The specialist of the Early Modern period was a regular contributor to The Art Newspaper

Jonas Mekas, ‘godfather of American avant-garde cinema’, dies at 96

Without Mekas, “experimental film is unthinkable”, says Stuart Comer, MoMA's chief curator of media and performance art

Nicola L., known for her feminist functional design, has died at 81

The artist’s 50-year career transcended art and design and provided humourous political critique

Tributes for the art historian Sister Wendy Beckett who has died, aged 88

Her unscripted commentaries on Rembrandt, Monet and Leonardo da Vinci turned her into an unlikely television star

Robert Morris, the conceptual sculptor and leading Minimalist, has died, aged 87

We once asked the artist for his thoughts on Minimalism; he called our questions “trivial, superficial, puerile, misdirected, irrelevant, egregious, distracted, dull, feeble, breathless, gossip-mongering, smarmy and lizard-like”

Shirin Aliabadi, known for depicting rebellious Iranian women, has died

Artist photographed women breaking free of state-imposed rules

Geta Brătescu, Romanian multidisciplinary artist, has died aged 92

She was an important figure of the European country’s avant-garde scene with a career spanning more than six decades, but gained wider international recognition in recent years

Josh Roth, Hollywood deal-maker who was the head of UTA's fine arts division, has died, aged 40

His death comes just weeks after the opening of the agency's new gallery in Beverly Hills, designed by the artist Ai Weiwei

Christopher Gibbs: the man who brokered £50m Getty grant to the National Gallery—and fed Princess Margaret hash brownies

The antiques dealer was more than an “acid-tripping ex-roué once known as the king of Chelsea”

Obituariesgallery

In pictures: South African photographer David Goldblatt, who captured the harsh reality of apartheid, dies aged 87

Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg says it will represent his legacy and estate with “honour, respect and responsibility”

Remembering Irving Sandler

The art critic, historian and Artists Space co-founder earned the moniker "The Sweeper Up After Artists"

Malcolm Morley, the first artist to win the Turner Prize, has died aged 86

The US-based photorealist trailblazer turned to Expressionism, experiencing a career renaissance in later years

Podcastspodcast

Podcast episode 33: Absent friends—Howard Hodgkin's final paintings; Robert Indiana remembered

We talk to Antony Peattie, the music writer and partner of the late Howard Hodgkin and to Barbara Haskell, curator of Robert Indiana's 2013 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack

LOVE artist Robert Indiana has died, aged 89

The artist’s death came the day after a lawsuit was filed over his legacy

Chicago dealer Richard Gray has died, aged 89

The gallerist and patron was a key figure in the city’s art scene for more than 50 years

‘Believing is seeing’: Tom Wolfe on Modern art

The novelist and journalist was also an outspoken art critic

Danish artist Per Kirkeby has died, aged 79

The painter was well known for his opaque, semi-abstract canvases inspired by natural history

Frieze New York pays tribute to the School of Hudson

The maverick art dealer helped to shape New York’s contemporary art scene by finding and supporting some of today's biggest artists

Abbas, Magnum photographer who focussed on political conflict and religion, dies aged 74

His documentation of the Iranian Revolution in his home country sparked a career-long fascination with the world’s major faiths

Marcia Hafif, California artist who found her calling in Italy, has died, aged 89

Like many other female artists of her generation, the painter and performer was overlooked by most of the art world until recently

Turner Prize nominee Gillian Ayres dies, aged 88

Abstract artist and printmaker was made a Royal Academician in 1991, but she resigned temporarily in 1997

US painter of cosmologies Jack Whitten dies age 78

Major survey of his sculptures opens at the Baltimore Museum of Art in April before travelling to the Metropolitan Museum

Pioneering US artist Betty Woodman dies aged 87

She was the first living woman to have a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Artist and activist Tim Rollins dies aged 62

The education pioneer founded the K.O.S. collective which challenges “elite notions of fine art”

Vincent Scully, fervent professor of art of architecture, has died, aged 97

His lectures at Yale University inspired generations to think about “the humanity within architecture”, says former student Maya Lin

Linda Nochlin: the American art historian who first pointed the finger at institutional barriers as the explanation for the absence of great female artists from the canon

She changed forever the way people thought about the mythology of artistic genius, and the masterpiece theatre version of art history

Tim Hunt—flâneur and the curator of the Andy Warhol Foundation—has died, aged 60

"He was the most charming, kind and witty individual imaginable, for whom nobody had a bad word, which is rare in the art world"