CAA News Today

CAA recognizes the lives and achievements of the following artists, architects, scholars, teachers, collectors, and other important figures in the visual arts. Of note is John Carey’s text on the artist and author Robert Kaupelis, written especially for CAA.

• Samuel Bookatz, an artist who worked in many styles and media, including oil and tempera paintings and ranging from realist to abstract, died on November 16, 2009, at the age of 90
• John Craxton, a painter who also created scenery and costume designs for opera and ballet productions, died on November 17, 2009, at the age of 87
• Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, who collaborated with her husband Christo Javacheff on many environmental art projects, died on November 18, 2009. She was 74
• Luciano Emmer, a distinguished Italian cinema director best known for his many art documentaries, including a film about Pablo Picasso, died on September 16, 2009, at the age of 91
• Rachel Evans-Milne, an artist of the original YBA generation, a teacher, and a counselor of children and young adults, died in November 2009 at the age of 44
• Peter Forakis, a California-based artist known for his geometric abstract sculptures, died on November 26, 2009, at age 82. Forakis was also a founder of the Park Place Gallery in New York in the early 1960s
• Walter Grallert, an architect, architectural conservator, poet, and environmentalist, died on November 27, 2009, at the age of 79
• Claude Harrison, a painter and the author of A Portrait Painter’s Handbook, died on September 13, 2009. He was 87
• Ikuo Hirayama, a painter whose subjects involved imagery of Buddhism and the Silk Road, died on December 2, 2009, at the age of 79
• Thomas Hoving, a former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died on December 10, 2009. He was 78
• Alfred Hrdlicka, an Austrian artist whose controversial works, often containing religious themes, were done in metal, paint, and pencil, died on December 5, 2009. He was 81
• Robert Kaupelis, an artist, art teacher, and author of Learning to Draw, died on June 12, 2009, at the age of 81. John Carey contributes a special text on Kaupelis for CAA.
• Michael Kidner, an English abstract painter and sculptor whose precise and hard-edged images were often at odds with the style of the New York School, died on November 29, 2009. He was 92
• Harry C. McCray, Jr., the chairman of the board of trustees at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, died on November 28, 2009, at the age of 76
• Jan Mitchell, a collector of pre-Columbian gold pieces, which he donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a founding member of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, died on November 28, 2009. He was 96
• Daniel Rowen, a modernist architect who designed houses, apartments, and commercial spaces, died on November 17, 2009, at the age of 56
• Larry Sultan, a photographer and CalArts professor who used found images from industrial and government archives for his and Mike Mandel’s book Evidence, died on December 13, 2009. He was 63
• Anna McCullough Tyler, an art historian, teacher, and artist of abstract monoprints, died on November 29, 2009, at the age of 79
• Eddy Walker, an architect who improved housing conditions and designed and renovated community buildings in Leeds, died in November 2009. He was 59
• Harry Weinberger, a painter and collector of masks, which inspired him and appear throughout his oeuvre, died on September 10, 2009. He was 85
• Malcolm Wells, an architect, writer, and teacher whose unconventional approach included designs for earth-friendly structures, died on November 27, 2009. He was 83.
• Charis Wilson, a model and the inspiration for many of Edward Weston’s photographs, died on November 20, 2009. She was 95

Read all past obituaries in the arts on the CAA website.