Dearly Departed: 2017 has been a momentous year with a first-rate Documenta and Venice Biennale. The year introduced us to a number of new emerging artists as well as the sad reality of losing some of the great talents of our generation both young and old. Here are some of the Artists and Art World Figures we have lost in the past year.
January
John Berger, art critic and Booker-Prize winning author died aged 90. Best known for his essay on art criticism ‘Ways of Seeing’.
Lord Snowdon (born Antony Armstrong-Jones), photographer and former husband of Princess Margaret
February
Jannis Kounellis, Artist best known for his association with the Arte Povera movement
March
Gustav Metzger – creator of auto-destructive art
Sir Howard Hodgkin RA, artist known for his colourful abstracts. Had major exhibitions this year at National Portrait Gallery and The Hepworth, Wakefield.
Trisha Brown, artist and New York choreographer associated with the downtown New York visual arts scene in the 1960s and 1970s.
April
James Rosenquist, first wave pioneer of US Pop Art
Glenn O’Brien, NY art journalist
Barkley Hendricks, African American black power painter and photographer
Vito Acconci, New York-born, Brooklyn-based conceptual and performance artist
May
AR Penck, German painter known for his pictographic neo-primitivist style
June
Khadija Saye, young photographer who tragically died in Grenfell fire
July
Danie LaRue Johnson, artist known for his assemblage, Hard Edge abstraction and minimalist sculpture included in Tate Modern’s Soul of A Nation exhibition
August
Dr Martin Roth, former Director V&A
September
Pierre Berge, leading figure of France’s cultural elite
David Shepherd, wildlife painter
Bernard Dunstan RA, painter
Edward Allington (1951–2017) Sculptor/Educator
October
Ralph Turner, curator, writer and exhibition organiser, former Director of exhibitions at Craft Council
David Marks, architect who designed London Eye and the British Airways i360 tower on Brighton seafront
November
Trevor Bell, modern St Ives artist noted for his large-scale and irregular canvases
December
Tim Hunt, curator of the Andy Warhol Foundation
Jon Naar, photographer
Enrico Castellani, Italian painter associated with the zero movement and Azimuth.
Tim Rollins, artist and co-founder Manhattan group Art Material