Yesterday it was announced that Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama passed away on August 14th, at the age of 97. Although she had a long career, she became very popular much later in life for her dot-covered sculptures and paintings, as well as her Infinity Mirror Rooms installations. Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away(2013) and Longing for Eternity (2017), are currently on view at The Broad in Los Angeles.
Kusama: Infinity, directed by Heather Lenz, follows Kusama’s life from her childhood in the mountain town of Matsumoto, to years trying to build a career in New York in the 1960s, her struggles with mental illness, and later, years after her return to Japan, her tremendous career success. The film is a fascinating portrait of an artist who dedicated so much of her energy into making art.
“Surprise”, 2012, Oil on canvas. (Photo by Thomas Müller) Image courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Installation view of “Mary Heilmann: Long Line” 2025 at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, On wall: “Long Line, 2025”; “Monochrome Chairs”, 2015; “April Chairs”, 2025. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
“Mode O’Day”, 1991, Oil on canvas, Image courtesy of 303 Gallery
Artist Mary Heilmann passed away on Friday, at 86. Heilmann started her career working in sculpture, but in the early 1970s shifted to making the paintings she would become known for. The influence of sculpture never left entirely though. She returned to making ceramic pieces, which sometimes accompanied her paintings, and began designing her signature chairs, in the early 2000s.
For more about the artist, Art21 has a few videos on their site, including the one below in which she discusses her work, inspirations, and the importance of the titles she uses.
For a deeper dive into Heilmaann’s life and career, including her childhood and education in California, check out Matt Creed’s excellent 2023 documentary Waves, Roads, & Hallucinations.
Betye Saar, “Takin’ A Chance on Luv”, 1984, pigment on cotton sateen, created in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum
Los Angeles artist Betye Saar passed away on Sunday, July 26th, at 99 years old, just a few days before her 100th birthday. Saar is best known for her assemblage pieces that confronted racism and sexism, often incorporating spiritual and mystical elements into the work as well.
Takin’ A Chance on Luv, pictured above, was part of the group exhibition Some American Dreams at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, which closed in June.
The short documentary below, created by Christine Turner for LACMA‘s Art+Film Initiative, features the artist at 93 discussing her work.
“A Letter From My Father”, 1975, courtesy of DC Moore Gallery
Innovative photographer Duane Michals passed away on Tuesday, 6/9/26, at the age of 94. He was famous for both his portraits of famous artists and celebrities, and for more personal work that often included his writing on the prints, something not done at the time.
He continuously worked up until his death, even shooting the campaign, What are Dreams, for Bottega Veneta last year. Featuring actor Jacob Elordi, it includes a short film along with a photo series, both based on a poem by Michals.
Jacob Elordi and Duane Michals in Bottega Veneta’s “What Are Dreams” campaign, photographed by Duane Michals in 2025. Photo courtesy of Bottega Veneta (image via Artnet)
His 2019 exhibition, Illusions of the Photographer at The Morgan Library and Museum included The Spirit Leaves the Body, and A Letter From My Father (pictured above), along with a few handwritten notes in his distinctive style, like the one below on death. Many of his photographs reflected an interest in mortality, but there was also a lighthearted aspect to many others.
For more on the artist, also check out this 2022 interview in Aperture magazine. In it he talks about his work, his partner of over 50 years (architect Fred Gorrée), his dreams, the importance of curiosity, and more. He also had a fun Instagram worth taking a look through.
“Early Snow – Rhinecliff Hotel”, 2017, oil on canvas
“Durham, August 14, 2017”, 2017, oil on canvas
American painter Celeste Dupuy-Spencer passed away last week at the age of 46. The images above are from her 2017 exhibition Wild and Blue at Marlborough gallery in NYC. She had also been part of the Whitney Biennial earlier that same year.
The first painting is of the Rhinecliff Hotel, a bar she frequented while growing up in Rhinebeck, NY. The second, Durham, August 14, 2017, is of the metal confederate statue that protesters tore down that year. That painting was also included in her section of Made in L.A. 2018, Hammer Museum‘s biennial exhibition of artists from the Los Angeles area. Her later work was often very political, including several paintings that are dense with imagery.
In this 2018 Bomb magazine interview, Dupuy-Spencer discusses some of her past struggles and provides insights into her practice.
Her first solo exhibition in five years, Burning in the Eyes of the Maker, will open at Deitch in Los Angeles this Saturday, 4/18/26.
Los Angeles based artist Llyn Foulkes sadly passed away last week. An innovative artist and musician, it was always fun to see his work around California.
The painting above, Post Card from Chatsworth, 1984, was on view at Palm Springs Art Museum in 2018.
About the work from the museum-
Foulkes is known for his acerbic perspective, dry humor, and distinctive style that draws from American popular culture. In the 1980s the artist returned to making Post Card paintings, which he originally created in the 1960s. This image of a seemingly desolate landscape features a large rock, an inscription, a post-office cancellation, and small self portrait. In celebrating the grand nature of the American landscape, the oversize format of the postcard also documents the absurdity of our own touristic impulses. Chatsworth is a neighborhood in northwest Los Angeles, but the area had previously been home to Native Americans, and its caves bear markings of rock art formations.
Artist, writer and professional wrestler Rosalyn Drexler, born on November 25, 1926, sadly passed away in September of this year. In addition to her famous artworks, she also wrote several novels and won Obie awards for her plays.
The painting above, Marilyn Pursued by Death, 1963, is currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
From the museum about the work-
Rosalyn Drexler’s work often explores the dark backstories of postwar media culture and gender roles. She frequently clipped subjects from printed materials-here, a news photograph of Marilyn Monroe fleeing the paparazzi with her bodyguard in tow-enlarged and collaged them onto canvas, and then painted over the image. In the artist’s words, her source images were “hidden but present, like a disturbing memory.” On the day this source photograph was taken in 1956, Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were to announce their upcoming marriage; in the frenzy to cover the event, a car carrying reporters crashed, killing at least one member of the press.
Ozzy Osbourne passed away last week at the age of 76. The Birmingham musician started as a singer in the English rock band Black Sabbath.
After leaving the band in 1979, he began his successful solo career with manager, and later wife, Sharon. In the 1990s he and Sharon started the very successful music festival Ozzfest, which included a Black Sabbath reunion. The yearly festival continued until 2010.
Along with his distinctive singing voice, he would also become notorious for his wild antics- including biting the heads off doves (at a record company meeting) and a bat at a concert (that may, or may not have been alive). The drug and alcohol fueled stories from his tour with Mötley Crüe in 1984 also added to his reputation.
From 2002-5 he joined his wife and two of his children for the popular family reality show, The Osbournes. He also continued making new music throughout the years, toured, and played reunion tours off and on with Black Sabbath- most recently only a few weeks before his death.
While it was sad to hear of his passing, he lived an incredible life.
Brian Wilson, musician, singer, songwriter and producer passed away today at 82. As a member of The Beach Boys he helped create some of the most famous music of 1960s America, and also arguably one of the best and most influential albums ever made, Pet Sounds.
Good Vibrations was released as a single the same year as Pet Sounds but was left off the album. It is one of the songs that best exemplifies Wilson’s unique production style.
Promoted as a “pocket symphony” for its complexity and episodic structure, the record had an unprecedented production and expanded the boundaries of popular music, elevating its recognition as an art form and revolutionizing standard practices in studio recording. It is considered one of the greatest works of rock, pop, and psychedelia.
Wilson was inspired by the concept of extrasensory perception, Phil Spector‘s production of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’“, and recreational drugs, possibly including LSD, in creating the song. He produced dozens of music fragments (or “modules”) with his bandmates and over 30 session musicians across four Hollywood studios from February to September 1966. Over 90 hours of tape was consumed, with production costs estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars, making it the costliest and longest-to-record pop single at the time. The resulting track subverted traditional songwriting conventions through its use of development, a process normally associated with classical music, and abrupt shifts in texture and mood.
One of the most influential pop recordings in history, “Good Vibrations” advanced the role of the studio as an instrument and effectively launched the progressive pop genre, heralding a wave of pop experimentation and the onset of psychedelic and progressive rock. The track incorporated a novel mix of instruments, including cello and Electro-Theremin; although the latter is not a true theremin, the song’s use of the instrument spurred renewed interest in theremins and synthesizers. The flower power-inspired lyrics reinforced the Beach Boys’ association with the 1960s counterculture, while the phrase “good vibes”, originally a niche slang term, entered mainstream usage.
Brazilian documentary photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado passed away on May 23rd at the age of 81. His distinctive black and white images brought attention to previously unseen cultures, devastating humanitarian crises, and the struggles of workers, all around the world. Later, he turned his sharp focus to the remote natural world and its inhabitants.
The images in this post are from the 2014 documentary The Salt of the Earth, co-directed by Wim Wenders and his son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. The film celebrates the artist’s life and career and focuses on several of his large projects.
Salgado also created Instituto Terra with his wife Lélia in 1998. The organization focuses on planting trees and restoring Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. The project began in on his family’s farmland, pictured below, before and after the restoration.
Below are additional images from Salgado’s environmental work seen in the film.
