In Memoriam appears every Wednesday afternoon and pays tribute to members of the art world we have recently lost.
Yervant Gianikian (1942–2026), the Armenian-Italian filmmaker, artist, and architect, was a leading figure in cinema in the second half of the 20th century alongside his late partner, Angela Ricci Lucchi. Among his major works were From the Pole to the Equator (1986), Prisoners of War (1995), and Angela’s Diaries – The Two of Us, Filmmakers (2018–26), a body of work that ranged from European colonialism to personal tribute. His work is held in institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern, and he helped Armenia win the Golden Lion at the 2015 Venice Biennale.
Valerie Brathwaite (1938–2026), the Trinidadian-born, Caracas-based abstract sculptor, drew on the geography, vegetation, and wildlife of her two home countries in her practice. Her undulating, organic sculptures and drawings were matched by her work as a DJ, through which she created a rich sonic world influenced by jazz and freestyle. Read the obituary.
Richard H. Glanton (1946–2026), former president of the Barnes Foundation, sought in the 1990s to raise the Philadelphia museum’s profile by selling certain works in defiance of the conditions established by its founder, a move that proved highly controversial. Herbert Lust (1926–2026), a collector known for befriending major figures of Postwar Euroamerican art, was a vivid presence in the postwar New York and Paris art scenes and counted Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder, Robert Indiana, and others among his friends; he also donated works from his substantial collection to institutions including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.
Beth McKillop (1953–2026) helped reshape mainstream understanding of Korean art by advancing the field in Britain. She established the United Kingdom’s first permanent Korean museum gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum and contributed to expanding its collection by more than 100 objects. Jerry Moriarty (1938–2026), the painter, cartoonist, and educator who called himself a “Paintoonist,” created the celebrated comic Jack Survives (1980), which appeared at cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s urging in his magazine Raw (1980–91); he also freelanced for Esquire, The New Yorker, Seventeen, and more, and taught at the School of Visual Arts.
Sharon Dede Padi (1976–2026), a Ghanaian artist and poet, was among Ghana’s leading contemporary artists and founded Padiki Art Gallery in Accra, where she showed her own work while supporting emerging artists. Last year, she also became the official Guinness World Records holder for Largest Leaf Print Painting, measuring more than 584 square feet (~54.3 sq m). Angela Rosengart (1932–2026), the Swiss gallerist, collector, and founder of Sammlung Rosengart Museum, had been active as an art dealer since 1948 and focused on Modernism; among her close friends was Picasso, who drew her portrait five times, and she founded the museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2002. Margaret Thomas (1941–2026), the photojournalist who captured key moments of the 20th century, was the first female photojournalist at the Washington Post and covered events ranging from the Watergate hearings to protests after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.; she also received numerous honors from the White House News Photographers Association, including the photographer of the year prize in 1987.
