Obituaries

Abdulamir Al-Hamdani, the revered archaeologist and former Iraqi culture minister, has died, aged 55

Hamdani, who served as Iraq’s culture minister from 2018 to 2020, played a vital role in rescuing, restoring and cataloguing the country’s ancient heritage

Grenville Davey, British sculptor, has died, aged 60

The self-effacing artist's subtle work beat flashier rivals such as Damien Hirst to win the Turner Prize

Hermann Nitsch, known for bloody and ritualistic performances that often confronted moral taboos, has died, aged 83

The revered avant-garde artist was prone to shocking audiences with the use of blood, carcases and viscera in his performances

Obituariesfeature

Philip Hewat-Jaboor, chairman of Masterpiece London, has died

The art consultant and collector passed away after a brief, sudden illness last week

Delfina Entrecanales, arts patron who founded the Delfina Foundation, has died, aged 94

A uniquely generous supporter of the arts who had been likened to a contemporary Medici, Entrecanales gave hundreds of artists the time and space to create but never demanded works in return

Budi Tek, art collector, museum founder and tireless champion of Chinese art, has died aged 65

Tributes pour in for the Indonesian-Chinese businessman who founded the Yuz Museum Shanghai in 2014

Jim Denomie, Ojibwe artist who painted the ‘raw realities of America’, has died, aged 66

At the time of his death, following a battle with cancer, Denomie was preparing for a major solo museum show in 2023

Dan Graham, artist who defied categorisation and was best known for his architectural pavilions, has died, aged 79

The American artist’s work spanned many formats and materials, and was informed by his early desire to become a writer

Jordanian artist Mona Saudi—who made abstract sculptures in stone—has died, aged 76

Several of her works are held in the British Museum collection and a major public work stands outside Paris's Institut du monde arabe

Ignored by the art world until her 80s, abstract artist Carmen Herrera has died, aged 106

Tributes paid to ‘extraordinary artist’ and her dazzling ‘hard-edge’ works

Berlin art dealer suspected of cheating clients has died

Michael Schultz was arrested in 2019 but died before he could be prosecuted

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

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

Obituariesfeature

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

‘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

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

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

Obituariesfeature

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

Obituariesfeature

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