Art News. Vasari Codex

candle obituary schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 60 link 16 artists, 2 galleries

Georg Baselitz obituary

Georg Baselitz, the German painter and sculptor known for his provocative, expressionistic works and his iconic upside-down paintings, has died at the age of 88. The article traces his life from his childhood in war-torn Germany, through his early career as a rebellious artist in divided Berlin, to his rise as an international art star. It highlights his 1961 manifesto poster "Pandemonium I," his rejection of American abstraction, and his controversial 1963 exhibition that was raided by police for its explicit content.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule May 4, 2026 visibility 37 link 6 artists, 2 galleries

Raghu Rai obituary

Raghu Rai, the renowned Indian photographer known for capturing his country's post-independence history through singular, enduring images, has died at age 83 from cancer. Rai's career spanned six decades, during which he documented events from the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster to the Bangladesh war of independence, and photographed figures including Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and the Dalai Lama. He joined Magnum Photos in 1977 after being invited by Henri Cartier-Bresson, and worked as a staff photographer for the Statesman and as picture editor for India Today.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule May 14, 2026 visibility 14 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

Renowned feminist artist and film-maker Valie Export dies aged 85

Valie Export, the Austrian performance artist and film-maker known for her provocative feminist works that challenged the male gaze, has died at age 85. Her foundation announced she died in Vienna on Thursday, three days before her 86th birthday. Export gained notoriety in the late 1960s for low-budget performances such as "Tapp und Tastkino" (1968), where she invited shoppers to touch her bare breasts through a tiny curtain strapped to her chest. She also co-founded the Austrian Filmmakers Cooperative, participated in documenta (1977, 2007) and the Venice Biennale (1980), and was a professor of multimedia and performance at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule Apr 30, 2026 source 5 sources visibility 44 link 10 artists, 1 gallery

German artist Georg Baselitz dies aged 88

German artist Georg Baselitz has died at age 88, as confirmed by the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery. Known for his expressive paintings and sculptures, Baselitz rose to prominence in the 1960s after a scandal over sexually symbolic works led to a high-profile court case. He pioneered painting canvases upside down from 1969 onward, a technique he used to grapple with German history and collective guilt. His work spanned six decades and included notable sculptures, such as a wooden figure at the 1980 Venice Biennale that appeared to perform a Nazi salute, which he later clarified was inspired by an African artifact. Baselitz achieved international acclaim in the 1980s and became one of Germany's highest-priced living artists, alongside Gerhard Richter.

newspaper The Guardian Also: Artsy Editorial, Frieze, Google News open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule May 18, 2026 visibility 13 link 5 artists, 2 galleries

The art world remembers Valie Export, Austrian pioneer of feminist performance art

VALIE EXPORT, the Austrian pioneer of feminist performance art, died on 14 May, three days before her 86th birthday. Her death was confirmed by her representative, Thaddaeus Ropac. Born Waltraud Lehner in Linz in 1940, she developed a radical artistic language centered on the female body, known for works such as *Tap and Touch Cinema* (1968–1971) and *Body Configurations* (1972–1976). Tributes have poured in from artists, writers, and institutions, including the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, where director Stella Rollig noted their ongoing collaboration on the exhibition *Feminist Futures Forever*.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 34 link 12 artists

George Baselitz, Purveyor of the Tortured Male Genius Myth, Dies at 88

Georg Baselitz, the influential German Neo-Expressionist painter known for his emotionally charged, often violent works and his controversial statements about women artists, has died at age 88. His final paintings will be shown in the exhibition "Eroi d’Oro" at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice starting May 6. Baselitz rose to prominence with his "Heroes" series of monumental male soldiers and his signature "upside down" paintings, which forced viewers to focus on painterly gesture over representation. He was a key precursor to Germany's Neue Wilde movement and confronted Germany's World War II trauma in works that combined expressionistic brutality with Wagnerian grandeur.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 27 link 13 artists, 2 galleries

Georg Baselitz – a life in pictures

Georg Baselitz, the German painter known for his raw, expressive works and inverted imagery, has died at age 88. Born in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, he lived through Nazi Germany and East German communist rule, experiences that deeply shaped his art. The Guardian's obituary traces his life through photographs, from his early years to major exhibitions at Thaddaeus Ropac, White Cube, and the Serpentine, highlighting key works such as 'Das Grosse Pathos' (1966) and his 2024 series 'A Confession of My Sins'.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule May 19, 2026 visibility 9 link 6 artists, 1 gallery

‘Her crotchless trousers are etched in my brain for ever’: Valie Export remembered by the artists she influenced

Valie Export, the pioneering Austrian feminist artist known for provocative performances like *Tapp-und-Tastkino* (1968) and *Genital Panic* (1969), is remembered by four artists she influenced: Peaches, Florentina Holzinger, Joan Jonas, and Candice Breitz. Each shares personal reflections on Export's radical use of the female body as a political weapon, her confrontational public interventions, and her legacy of civil disobedience against patriarchal structures.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 20 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

Raghu Rai’s masterful images of Indian life – in pictures

Raghu Rai, the celebrated Indian photographer who was recruited to Magnum Photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1977, has died at the age of 83. Over five decades, he produced defining images of Indian life, ranging from intimate portraits of Mother Teresa to stark documentation of the Bhopal disaster. His work captured both the grand and the everyday, from crowds at Mumbai's Churchgate railway station to slums in Dharavi, and he published more than 18 books, receiving multiple awards for his unflinching human gaze.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 21 link 3 artists

Mark Gerson obituary

Mark Gerson, a British photographer renowned for his intimate portraits of literary figures, has died at age 104. Over a career spanning half a century, Gerson captured iconic images of authors including Evelyn Waugh, Doris Lessing, William Golding, Tom Stoppard, and Martin Amis, often photographing them in their own homes to put them at ease. His most famous picture is of a grumpy Waugh on his 60th birthday, taken after Gerson was plied with wine. Gerson's work was championed by National Portrait Gallery director Roy Strong, and in 1996 the gallery held a major exhibition of his portraits titled "Literati."

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 30 link 7 artists

‘In every drop of paint he slurped, you see the Holocaust’: the genius and torments of Georg Baselitz

Georg Baselitz, the German painter and sculptor known for his provocative confrontations with Nazi history, has died. Born in 1938, he was one of the last living artists with direct childhood memories of the Third Reich. His early works, such as *Die große Nacht im Eimer* (1961) and his upside-down German eagles, deliberately shocked postwar West Germany by depicting obscene, shameful images of a society trying to forget the Holocaust. He famously exhibited a zombie Hitler woodcarving at the 1980 Venice Biennale alongside Anselm Kiefer, insisting on confronting rather than ignoring the Nazi heritage of the German Pavilion.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule May 15, 2026 visibility 11 link 1 artist

A snapshot of the photographer Raghu Rai | Brief letters

A letter to the editor from Gabrielle Palmer recounts her experience contacting photographer Raghu Rai in 1987 to request permission to use one of his photographs in her book "The Politics of Breastfeeding." Unable to afford the £200 fee, Palmer called Rai in India, who generously waived the fee entirely and wished her well. The letter is a brief tribute published in response to Rai's obituary in The Guardian.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule May 10, 2026 visibility 13 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

Ray Burgoyne obituary

Ray Burgoyne, a self-taught painter, carpenter, and musician, has died at the age of 80. After a career as a carpenter and set builder, he began exhibiting his paintings in the late 1980s and spent the next three decades organizing numerous exhibitions along the Essex and Suffolk coastline. His work, characterized by thick oil paint, abstract forms, and deep colors, drew on carnivalesque characters and forgotten landscapes. He also played drums in the 1960s mod band the Flowerpots, which opened for the Animals and the Who.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 6

Martin Lister obituary

Martin Lister, a writer, teacher, and scholar of photography and new media, has died at age 78. He was a key figure in the study of how technology intersects with cultural ways of seeing, editing the influential book *The Photographic Image in Digital Culture* (1995) and co-authoring *New Media: A Critical Introduction* (2003). Lister served as head of the school of cultural studies at the University of the West of England (UWE) and taught at institutions including Cockpit Arts Workshop and Newport College of Art and Design.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original