John Baldessari
John Baldessari, an American artist and pioneer of Conceptualism, died at age 88 in January.
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Akbar Padamsee
Image Credit: COURTESY CHRISTIE'S Akbar Padamsee, a leading Indian modernist whose work spanned painting, photography, sculpture, and film, died at age 91 in January.
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Toshio Saeki
Image Credit: COURTESY JEFFREY DEITCH GALLERY Toshio Saeki, a painter, illustrator, and prominent figure of Japan’s postwar underground scene, died at age 74 in January. (Pictured: Toshio Saeki’s Ureshi Daruma, 2018.)
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Ferdinand Wolfgang Neess
Image Credit: MARKUS BOLLEN/WIESBADEN MUSEUM Ferdinand Wolfgang Neess, a German dealer and collector known for his holdings of Art Nouveau works, died at age 90 in January. (Pictured: Oskar Zwintscher, Portrait with Yellow Daffodils, 1907.)
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Jason Polan
Image Credit: COURTESY THE ARTIST'S WEBSITE Jason Polan, an American artist best known for the project “Every Person in New York,” died at age 37 in January.
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Santu Mofokeng
Image Credit: COURTESY THE ARTIST Santu Mofokeng, a photographer who captured the lives of black South Africans, died at age 64 in January. (Pictured: Santu Mofokeng, Eyes-Wide-Shut, Motouleng Cave, Clarens, 2004.)
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Oswald Oberhuber
Image Credit: © RUDI MOLACEK Oswald Oberhuber, an Austrian artist whose practice spanned painting, collage, sculpture, installation, and assemblage, died at age 88 in January.
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Ikko Narahara
Image Credit: COURTESY TAKA ISHII GALLERY Ikko Narahara, a Japanese postwar photographer and cofounder of the documentary group VIVO, died at age 88 in January. (Pictured: Ikko Narahara’s Garden of Silence, 1958–77.)
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Félix Marcilhac
Image Credit: COURTESY OF GALERIE MARCILHAC Félix Marcilhac, a Parisian art historian and dealer known for his collection of Art Deco and Art Nouveau works, died at age 78 in January.
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Irwin Kremen
Image Credit: COURTESY KLAUS VON NICHTSSGEND GALLERY, NEW YORK Irwin Kremen, a professor of psychology at Duke University and self-taught sculptor, painter, and collagist, died in February.
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Elisabeth Wild
Image Credit: COURTESY THE FAMILY OF ELISABETH WILD Elisabeth Wild, a Guatamala-based artist who created dynamic and colorful collages, died at age 98 in February.
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Anne Marion
Image Credit: COURTESY THE GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM Anne Marion, an arts patron and founder of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, died at age 81 in February.
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Alan Turner
Image Credit: COURTESY MITCHELL ALGUS GALLERY, NEW YORK Alan Turner, a New York painter who created disquieting, surrealist works, died at age 76 in February. (Pictured: Alan Turner, Untitled (Hairpin), 1989.)
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Kevin Consey
Image Credit: COURTESY BAMPFA Kevin Consey, an American museum director who helmed the University of California’s Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, died at age 68 in February.
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Peter Dreher
Image Credit: COURTESY KÖNIG GALERIE, BERLIN Peter Dreher, a German postwar painter who created thousands of works depicting an empty glass on a table, died at age 87 in February. (Pictured: Peter Dreher, Tag um Tag guter Tag, oil on masonite artist frame, 1981.)
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James Brown
Image Credit: COURTESY GALERIE KARSTEN GREVE James Brown, an American painter best knwon for his work in the 1980s East Village scene, died at age 68 in February. (Pictured: Installation view of James Brown’s 2011 exhibition at Galerie Karsten Greve in Paris.)
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Jack Youngerman
Image Credit: COURTESY MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Jack Youngerman, an American abstract painter who rose to prominence in 1950s New York, died at age 93 in February. (Pictured: Work by Jack Youngerman in 1959’s “16 Americans” at the Museum of Modern Art.)
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Virginia Wright
Image Credit: COURTESY SEATTLE ART MUSEUM Virginia Wright, an influential Seattle-based collector of postwar and contemporary art who appeared on ARTnews’s Top 200 Collectors list each year from 1990 to 1999 and then again from 2004 to 2006, died at age 91 in February.
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Beverly Pepper
Image Credit: Agf/Shutterstock Beverly Pepper, an American sculptor who often exhibited her abstract steel works in outdoor spaces around the world, died at age 97 in February.
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Suellen Rocca
Image Credit: ©SUELLEN ROCCA/COURTESY MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY Suellen Rocca, a legendary artist of the Chicago scene who worked in the Hairy Who group in the 1960s, died at age 76 in March. (Pictured: Suellen Rocca, Bare Shouldered Beauty and the Pink Creature, 1965.)
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Nelson Leirner
Image Credit: AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo Nelson Leirner, a Brazilian artist whose work was often inspired by pop culture and art history, died at age 88 in March. (Pictured: A sculpture by Nelson Leirner at the ART Rio-International Art Fair in 2013.)
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Ulay
Image Credit: Sten Rosenlund/Shutterstock Ulay, a German-born performance artist who for many years worked collaboratively with Marina Abramović, died at age 76 in March.
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Maurice Berger
Image Credit: MediaPunch/Shutterstock Maurice Berger, an American art historian and curator who examined whiteness in the art world, died at age 63 in March.
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Merry Norris
Image Credit: COURTESY SCI-ARC Merry Norris, cofounder of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, died at age 80 in March.
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Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
Image Credit: COURTESY THE ARTIST Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, an English artist and musician whose work challenged the status quo, died at age 70 in March. (Pictured: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Lady Jaye.)
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Paul Kasmin
Image Credit: CARI VUONG Paul Kasmin, a London-born dealer who founded a gallery in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood that has three spaces, died at age 60 in March.
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Peter Loughrey
Image Credit: COURTESY LOS ANGELES MODERN AUCTIONS Peter Loughrey, an American curator, collector, and founder of the Los Angeles Modern Auctions house, died at age 52 in March.
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J. Seward Johnson Jr.
Image Credit: Giulio Azzarello/Shutterstock J. Seward Johnson Jr., an American sculptor who situated his hyper-realistic art in public spaces, died at age 89 in March. (Pictured: A sculpture by Seward Johnson in Palermo, Italy.)
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David C. Driskell
Image Credit: COURTESY DAVID C. DRISKELL David C. Driskell, an influential American artist, collector, historian, and curator who centered African-American art history, died at age 88 in April.
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Germano Celant
Image Credit: Maria Laura Antonelli/Shutterstock Germano Celant, an Italian curator and critic and pioneer of the avant-garde movement Arte Povera, died at age 80 in April.
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Zarina
Image Credit: COURTESY JEANNE BUCHER JAEGER Zarina, an Indian artist who examined trauma and displacement by way of her minimalist prints, died at age 83 in April.
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John Driscoll
Image Credit: COURTESY DRISCOLL BABCOCK GALLERIES John Driscoll, the longtime owner of New York’s Driscoll Babcock Galleries, died in April.
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Paul J. Smith
Image Credit: COURTESY MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN Paul J. Smith, a curator and museum director who specialized in American craft, died at age 88 in April.
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Floris Neusüss
Image Credit: COURTESY THE ARTIST AND ATLAS GALLERY Floris Neusüss, a German-born pioneer of cameraless photography who created ghostly images, died at age 83 in April. (Pictured: Floris Neusüss, Nudogram (Kör K 79), 1968.)
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Tina Girouard
Image Credit: COURTESY ANAT EBGI Tina Girouard, an American artist who famously cofounded the restaurant and conceptual artwork FOOD in New York’s SoHo neighborhood in 1971, died at age 73 in April.
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Lois Weinberger
Image Credit: GEORGIOS KEFALAS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Lois Weinberger, an Austrian artist known for his works involving repurposed plants, died at age 72 in April.
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Ian Wilson
Image Credit: COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JAN MOT, BRUSSELS Ian Wilson, a South African artist whose practice foregrounded discussions of art over production, died at age 80 in April. (Pictured: Circle on the Floor (Chalk Circle), 1968, one of Ian Wilson’s final physical artworks.)
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Helène Aylon
Image Credit: GRACE ROSELLI, PANDORA'S BOXX/COURTESY LESLIE TONKONOW ARTWORKS + PROJECTS Helène Aylon, a New York–based artist whose work considered feminism, environmentalism, and Judaism, died at age 89 in April.
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Renato Danese
Image Credit: COURTESY ADAA Renato Danese, a New York dealer who ran the gallery Danese/Corey with Carol Corey, died at age 76 in April.
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Marlo Pascual
Image Credit: COURTESY THE ARTIST AND CASEY KAPLAN Marlo Pascual, a Philadelphia-based artist sculptor whose works incorporate photographic elements, died at age 48 in April.
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Emma Amos
Image Credit: BECKET LOGAN/COURTESY RYAN LEE Emma Amos, whose figurative paintings confronted histories of racism, sexism, and class struggle, died at age 83 in May.
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Christo
Image Credit: WOLFGANG VOLZ Christo, who with his wife Jeanne-Claude created monumental interventions in public spaces, died at age 84 in May.
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Li Hui
Image Credit: COURTESY UCCA CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART Li Hui, a Chinese artist who created mesmerizing installations incorporating lasers and lights, died at age 43 in May. (Pictured: Li Hui, V, 2008.)
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Juan Genovés
Image Credit: COURTESY REINA SOFÍA MUSEUM Juan Genovés, a Spanish artist whose work focused on the country’s political issues in the postwar era, died at age 89 in May. (Pictured: Juan Genovés, El Abrazo (The Embrace), 1976.)
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Thomas Sokolowski
Image Credit: AP Photo/Keith Srakocic Thomas Sokolowski, an American museum director and cofounder of the organization Visual AIDS, died at age 70 in May.
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Adam Henein
Image Credit: COURTESY FACEBOOK/ADAM HENEIN FOUNDATION Adam Henein, an Egyptian artist who created works fusing modernist abstraction and pharaonic iconography, died at age 91 in May.
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Susan Rothenberg
Image Credit: JASON SCHMIDT Susan Rothenberg, who painted elegant, critically acclaimed figurations, died at age 75 in May.
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Richard Anuszkiewicz
Image Credit: COURTESY TWITTER/NASHER MUSEUM OF ART AT DUKE UNIVERSITY Richard Anuszkiewicz, an American Op Art painter, died at age 89 in May. (Pictured: Richard Anuszkiewicz, Spectral Cadmium from the portfolio Spectral Cadmiums, 1968, screenprint on paper.)
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Cynthia Navaretta
Image Credit: NORA G. LICHT/COURTESY OF DOUGLAS SHEER Cynthia Navaretta, a pioneering feminist critic and publisher, died at age 97 in May. (Pictured: Cynthia Navaretta and Douglas I. Sheer in Navaretta’s apartment in 2015.)
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Peter Alexander
Image Credit: CHRISTOPHER HEIJNEN/COURTESY PARRISCH HEIJNEN GALLERY Peter Alexander, a Los Angeles artist associated with the Light and Space movement of the 1960s, died at age 81 in May. (Pictured: Works by Peter Alexander at Parrasch Heijnen Gallery in Los Angeles in 2016.)
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Elsa Dorfman
Image Credit: © ELSA DORFMAN, 2013, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED/PHOTOGRAPH © MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON Elsa Dorfman, an American photographer who was known for her large-format Polaroid portraits, died at age 83 in May. (Pictured: Elsa Dorfman, Me and My Camera, 1986, dye‑diffusion photograph (Polaroid print).)
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Manuel Felguérez
Image Credit: Foto AP/Marco Ugarte, archivo Manuel Felguérez, a Mexican painter, sculptor, and educator who was part of the Generación de la Ruptura, died at age 91 in June.
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Anna Blume
Image Credit: COURTESY PETER FREEMAN, INC. Anna Blume, a German artist who made experimental photographs with her husband, Bernhard, died at age 84 in June.
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Carl Solway
Image Credit: COURTESY CARL SOLWAY GALLERY Carl Solway, a Cincinnati-based art dealer and supporter of artists including Buckminster Fuller, Ann Hamilton, and Nam June Paik, died at age 85 in June.
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Luther Price
Image Credit: GENE PITTMAN/COURTESY WALKER ART CENTER Luther Price, a Massachusetts-based experimental filmmaker whose work was shown in the 2012 Whitney Biennial in New York, died at age 58 in June.
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Frank Popper
Image Credit: COURTESY JOSEPH NECHVATAL Frank Popper, a Czech art historian who wrote key texts on the connections between modern art and technology, died at age 102 in July.
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Enrico Navarra
Image Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS Enrico Navarra, a collector of work by Jean-Michel Basquiat and co-author of an in-depth publication on the artist, died at age 67 in July. (Pictured: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Air Power, 1984, at Sotheby’s in London in 2016.)
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Ed Gilbert
Image Credit: COURTESY TWITTER Ed Gilbert, owner and director of Anglim Gilbert Gallery in San Francisco, died at age 67 in July.
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Brigid Berlin
Image Credit: COURTESY INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, NEW YORK Brigid Berlin, who photographed goings-on in Andy Warhol’s Factory, died at age 80 in July. (Pictured: Brigid Berlin, Untitled (Self-Portrait Double Exposure), ca. 1971-1973, Polaroid.)
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Lotty Rosenfeld
Image Credit: COURTESY 1 MIRA MADRID Lotty Rosenfeld, a Chilean artist known for her performances and politically-minded interventions, died at age 77 in July. (Pictured: Lotty Rosenfeld in 1979 as she created her iconic Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento.)
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Keith Sonnier
Image Credit: ©CATERINA VERDE Keith Sonnier, who pushed the boundaries of sculpture by using fabric, foam, and neon lights in his pieces, died at age 78 in July.
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Rebeccah Blum
Image Credit: VIA WORDSMITH.COM Rebeccah Blum, a Berlin-based independent curator who established the firm Blum Fine Art Management, died in July.
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Richard Brettell
Image Credit: COURTESY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS Richard Brettell, an arts educator, Impressionism scholar, and former director of the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, died at age 71 in July.
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Paul Fusco
Image Credit: COURTESY DANZIGER GALLERY Paul Fusco, a photographer whose most famous series focused on reactions to Robert F. Kennedy’s death, died at age 89 in July. (Pictured: Paul Fusco, Untitled, 1968.)
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Luchita Hurtado
Image Credit: ©LUCHITA HURTADO/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND HAUSER & WIRTH/FREDRIK NILSEN Luchita Hurtado, a Venezuela-born painter of dreamy canvases featuring female bodies and landscapes, died at age 99 in August.
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Siah Armajani
Image Credit: COURTESY METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Siah Armajani, an Iranian-American sculptor and architect best known for his bridge structures, died at age 81 in August.
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Judit Reigl
Image Credit: SIPA VIA AP IMAGES Judit Reigl, a Hungarian painter who broke from the Surrealists to create abstractions, died at age 97 in August. (Pictured: A work by Judit Reigl at the left on display at the Fine Arts Museum of Nantes in France.)
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Heinz Frank
Image Credit: NATHALIE BADR Heinz Frank, a Viennese artist who made whimsical installations involving objects, furnishings, and sculptures, died at age 81 in August.
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Ron Gorchov
Image Credit: ©MICHAEL AVEDON Ron Gorchov, who created minimalist paintings with a sculptural edge, died at age 90 in August.
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Bill Arnett
Image Credit: STEPHEN PITKIN/PITKIN STUDIOS Bill Arnett, a collector of work by Black artists based in the American South and founder of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, died at age 81 in August. (Pictured: Thornton Dial and Bill Arnett.)
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Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara
Image Credit: Courtesy the artist Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara, a Palestinian artist whose painted reliefs meditate on his country’s history, died at age 87 in August. (Pictured: Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara, The Bride’s Zaffeh on the Camel, relief, 1990.)
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David Cort
Image Credit: COURTESY THE ARTISTS In August, it was announced that David Cort, a cofounder of the Videofreex collective, died at age 85. (Pictured: The Videofreex, with David Cort at left.)
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Pierre Nahon
Image Credit: COURTESY SOTHEBY'S Pierre Nahon, a French dealer and champion of the Nouveaux Réalistes, died at age 84 in September. (Pictured: Marianne and Pierre Nahon.)
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Noriyuki Haraguchi
Image Credit: COURTESY FERGUS MCCAFFREY Noriyuki Haraguchi, a Japanese artist who rose to prominence in the postwar years, died at age 74 in September. (Pictured: Noriyuki Haraguchi, Oil Pool, 1970/2015.)
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Robert Bechtle
Image Credit: ©ROBERT BECHTLE/COURTESY GLADSTONE GALLERY Robert Bechtle, a Bay Area artist whose paintings, drawings, and prints were often based on photographs he took, died at age 88 in September. (Pictured: Robert Bechtle, View of North Adams, 2006.)
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Erich Marx
Image Credit: TIM BRAKEMEIER/PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/AP IMAGES German collector Erich Marx, who donated much of his collection of contemporary art to the German state in the 1990s, died at age 99 in September.
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Linda Givon
Image Credit: COURTESY GOODMAN GALLERY Linda Givon, a dealer who founded South Africa’s Goodman Gallery, died at age 84 in October.
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Chris Killip
Image Credit: COURTESY THE ARTIST'S FAMILY AND HOWARD YEZERSKI GALLERY Chris Killip, a British photographer who captured black-and-white images of working class people in the United Kingdom, died at age 74 in October. (Pictured: Chris Killip, Margaret, Rosie & Val by burning deckchair, 1985, silver gelatin print.)
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Frederick Weston
Image Credit: GREGORY CARIDEO/COURTESY GORDON ROBICHAUX Frederick Weston, a New York artist, performer, and fashion designer who examined the media’s representation of the city’s Black and queer communities, died at age 73 in October. (Pictured: Frederick Weston, Blue Genes from “Bathroom Blues Series”, 2000.)
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Mohamed Melehi
Image Credit: ©MOHAMED MELEHI Mohamed Melehi, a Moroccan painter who created vibrant abstractions, died at age 84 in October. (Pictured: Mohamed Melehi, Pink Flame, 1972.)
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Alan Rath
Image Credit: COURTESY HOSFELT GALLERY Alan Rath, a Bay Area artist who used software to make kinetic sculptures, died at age 60 in October.
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Herman Daled
Image Credit: COURTESY JOACHIM OLENDER Herman Daled, a Belgian collector of Conceptualist art, died in November. (Pictured: Herman Daled in the 2014 documentary La collection qui n’existait pas.)
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Peter Joseph
Image Credit: ©2017 RICH STAPLETON/COURTESY LISSON GALLERY Peter Joseph, a British artist who explored geometry, space, and color in his understated paintings, died at age 91 in November.
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James T. Demetrion
Image Credit: ANDY DELGIUDICE/COURTESY HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN James T. Demetrion, an influential director of the the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., died at age 90 in November. (Pictured: James T. Demetrion (at right) with artist Ai Weiwei and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden director Melissa Chiu.)
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Tatsuo Ikeda
Image Credit: © TATSUO IKEDA/COURTESY THE ECONOMOU COLLECTION, ATHENS Tatsuo Ikeda, a Japanese artist who drew on experiences with war for his drawings, died at age 92 in November. (Pictured: Tatsuo Ikeda, LOVE, 1955, ink on paper.)
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Ian Jenkins
Image Credit: EDWIN REMSBERG / VWPICS VIA AP IMAGES Ian Jenkins, senior curator of Greek art at the British Museum in London who addressed the Elgin Marbles controversy, died at age 67 in November. (Pictured: The Elgin marbles from the Parthenon at the British Museum.)
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Aldo Tambellini
Image Credit: COURTESY THE ARTIST Aldo Tambellini, an Italian-American filmmaker whose experimentations pushed the boundaries of the medium, died at age 90 in November. (Pictured: A work from Aldo Tambellini’s “Cell Series,” 1965–2020.)
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Roger Mandle
Image Credit: AP PHOTO/STEW MILNE, FILE Roger Mandle, who held high-ranking positions at museums in the United States and Qatar, died at age 79 in November. (Pictured: Roger Mandle (at right) with John Maeda, his successor at RISD.)
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Jackie Saccoccio
Image Credit: CHARLES BENTON/COURTESY VAN DOREN WAXTER, NEW YORK Jackie Saccoccio, who created vibrant abstractions on canvas using as many 50 layers of paint, died at age 56 in December.
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John Outterbridge
Image Credit: COURTESY HAMMER MUSEUM John Outterbridge, a Los Angeles sculptor known for his assemblages of found materials, died at age 87 in December.
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Barbara Rose
Image Credit: COURTESY HBO Barbara Rose, a critic and curator who shaped the study of postwar art in the United States, died at age 84 in December. (Pictured: Barbara Rose in the 2018 film The Price of Everything.)
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David Medalla
Image Credit: ANTHONY DEVLIN/PA WIRE/AP David Medalla, a Filipino artist whose best-known sculptures emit soap bubbles, died at age 78 in December.
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Evan Hopkins Turner
Image Credit: COURTESY PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART Evan Hopkins Turner, who directed several museums in the U.S. and Canada over the course of his career, died at age 93 in December.