Every Wednesday afternoon, we dedicate space to honor those from the art world whom we have recently lost in our In Memoriam section.
Iris Cantor (1931–2026) was a significant arts patron and the chairwoman of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation. She generously contributed hundreds of millions to arts, medical, and educational organizations. Her private collection of Auguste Rodin sculptures was among the most extensive globally.
Rena Bransten (1933–2026) was a pivotal figure in the San Francisco art community, running her own gallery for over fifty years. She was known for promoting California-based artists, with a particular focus on artists of color, women, and those identifying as LGBTQ+.
The late Ulysses Jenkins (1946–2026) was an innovative video artist and educator whose work was deeply influenced by West African oral traditions, reflected in his documentaries like The Nomadics (1991). He studied under Charles White at Otis College, where he later taught, and he had a major retrospective at the Hammer Museum in 2022.
Additional losses include Mario Buhagiar, a Maltese art historian who founded the art history department at the University of Malta, and Jacopo Camagni, an Italian comic artist known for his work with Marvel. Paul Conroy, a renowned British war photographer, documented conflict zones, notably covering the siege of Homs in Syria, which inspired the film A Private War (2018).
Other notable figures we remember are Zach Horn, an interdisciplinary artist and educator, Hwang Jae-hyung, a Korean artist renowned for his coal mining site depictions, and Stephen Koch, an author dedicated to preserving Peter Hujar’s legacy. Their contributions, along with those of Fenwick Lawson, Jasmine Little, Satoshi Mori, Giancarlo Politi, Asher Remy-Toledo, G.G. Santiago, and Jean Widmer, have left a lasting impact on their respective fields.
