artist

8Jun

By Web TeamNo Comments

Mexico, Noteworthy, Profiles

Manuel Felguérez, abstract artist

Manuel Felguérez Barra ‑ a Mexican abstract artist, part of the Generación de la Ruptura which broke with the muralist movement of Diego Rivera and others in the mid 20th century – passed away after contracting coronavirus on June 8, 2020. Felguérez was born in the state of Zacatecas in 1928, but political instability caused his family to lose their land there and move to Mexico City. In 1947, he had the chance to travel to Europe and, impressed with the art there, decided to dedicate himself to the vocation. Unhappy with the education at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico, he did most of his studies in France, where he specialized in abstract art, something that was not accepted in Mexico at the time. His exhibitions were initially limited to galleries and the production of "sculpted...

10May

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Brazil, Noteworthy, Portugal, Profiles

Abraham Palatnik, artist and inventor

Abraham Palatnik a Brazilian artist and inventor whose innovations include kinechromatic art – died from COVID-19 on May 9, 2020 at the age of 92 in Rio de Janeiro. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. He is considered a pioneer of technological art in Brazil for his early use of mechanical systems and light. He exhibited some of his works in the First Biennial of São Paulo in 1951. Palatnik was born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, lived from 1932 to 1947 in Israel before settling in Rio de Janeiro, where he spent most of his adult life. Two works by Palatnik are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

9May

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Brazil, Noteworthy, Profiles

Jesus Chediak, artist & journalist

Jesus Chediak ‑ a Brazilian actor, film director, film producer, journalist, and theatre director – passed away after contracting Covid-19 virus on May 8, 2020. During his cinematic career, Chediak was responsible for six feature films, working at various functios such as, actor, diretor, producer and writer. Aside from his career in cinema, he also worked as a professor at Federal University of Bahia. In 2017, he was apointed Casa França-Brasil's new director. At the time of his death, Chediak held the post of Cultural manager of the Associação Brasileira de Imprensa. Chediak was married to journalist Glória Chediak. The couple had four kids. He had two brothers, Braz ...

Claude Lafortune, paper artist, set decorator and TV personality

20Apr

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Canada, Noteworthy, Profiles

Claude Lafortune, paper artist, set decorator and TV personality

Claude Lafortune a Canadian paper artist, set decorator and TV personality died in Longueuil, Quebec, aged 83,died on 19 April 2020,after contracting the COVID-19 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec. A graduate of the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, Lafortune collaborated on many graphic design projects before he became famous for his paper art. He had an exhibit devoted to his paper art work—titled Colle, papier, ciseaux—at the Musée des cultures du monde in Nicolet, Quebec. The exhibition has traveled to Longueuil, Montreal, Terrebonne, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Lachine, Chicoutimi, Bonaventure, La Malbaie and New Brunswick.

12Apr

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Wynn Handman, artist

Wynn Handman the Artistic Director of The American Place Theatre, which he co-founded with Sidney Lanier and Michael Tolan in 1963 died on April 11, 2020 in New York City at the age of 97 from COVID-19. His role in the theatre was to seek out, encourage, train, and present new and exciting writing and acting talent and to develop and produce new plays by living American writers. In addition, he initiated several Arts Education Programs, such as Literature to Life. Handman grew up in the Inwood neighborhood in Upper Manhattan. Handman also studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York City. He died due to complications brought on by COVID-19. He was a recipient of the 1999 Obie for Sustained Achievement; the Lucille Lortel Award for Lifetime Achieve...

12Apr

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France, Noteworthy, Profiles

Gillian Wise, artist

Gillian Wise - an English artist devoted to the application of concepts of rationality and aesthetic order to abstract paintings and reliefs – died on 11 April 2020 of COVID-19 while living in the Paris care home to which she had moved following the deterioration of her health in 2018. Between 1972 and 1990 she was known as Gillian Wise Ciobotaru. Wise was born at Ilford in London to Arthur, a timber merchant, and Elsie, nee Holden, a milliner. She studied art at the Wimbledon College of Art from 1954 to 1957 and then at the Central School of Arts and Crafts during 1959. Before she graduated, Wise was already showing works with a group of Constructionist artists, exhibiting at the 1957 Young Contemporaries exhibition at the Royal British A...

10Apr

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China, Noteworthy, Profiles

Ho Kam Ming, martial artist

Ho Kam Ming –a Macanese-born Canadian martial artist who was one of the students of martial arts teacher Ip Man in the discipline of Wing Chun – passed away on 9 April 2020 due to Covid-19. Ho was born in Macau in 1925. When he was 30, he started learning Wing Chun and became Ip Man's formal student. In Ip Ching's memoirs My Father Ip Man, Ho was described as one of Ip Man's "excellent disciples". Ho was cultivated by Ip Man, later, he inherited Ip's wish to further develop Wing Chun. In 1960, he returned to Macau and opened the first Wing Chun school there. Ho migrated to Canada in 1990. He settled in Toronto, where he founded the World Ho Kam Ming Wing Chun Association and was still active teaching. In 201...

5Apr

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Olan Montgomery, actor & pop artist

Timothy Olan Montgomery, best known as Olan Montgomery or simply as "Olan," was an American actor and pop artist specializing in mixed-media portraiture. He succumbed to Covid-19-related complications on April 4, 2020. He was active in New York art circles as a photographer, painter, author, and actor in film and television. He died during the COVID-19 pandemic due to complications brought on by COVID-19. Timothy Olan Montgomery was born April 12, 1963, in Warner Robins, Georgia, the second of identical twins born to Eslye Lee Moate and Gary Misner Montgomery. He spent most of his youth in Macon, Georgia, graduating in 1980 from Northeast High School in that city. Following graduation he attended the Columbia University in New York City. Montgomery left colle...

2Apr

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

David Driskell, artist & scholar

David C. Driskell ‑ an artist and a scholar in the field of African-American art – died from coronavirus on April 1, 2020. Driskell was emeritus professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. David Clyde Driskell was born in Eatonton, Georgia, the son of George Washington Driskell, a minister, and Mary Cloud Driskell, a homemaker. When he was five years old, he moved with his family to western North Carolina. Driskell attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., graduating with a bachelor's degree in art in 1955; he also completed the summer program at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1953. After teaching for several years at Talladega College in Alabama, he went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree...

1Apr

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Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Julie Bennett, actress & voice artist

Julie Bennett, an American actress and voice artist, died on March 31, 2020 from coronavirus. A native of Hollywood, Bennett worked as a character actress on stage, on radio, and in several film and television programs, including The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Adventures of Superman, and Dragnet. Bennett worked as a voice actress from the 1950s until the early 2000s. She recorded voices for UPA, Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Format Films' The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (for the segment Fractured Fairy Tales), and Hanna-Barbera Productions. She is best known as the voice of Hanna-Barbera's Cindy Bear on The Yogi Bear Show and its feature-film spin-off Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! She reprised the character in Yogi's Tre...