Obituaries - Artworld - Obituary

Art in America, Oct, 2003 by Raphael Rubinstein

Haroldo de Campos, 73, Brazilian concrete poet, died Aug. 16 in Sao Paulo of complications from diabetes. A pioneering figure in visual poetry since the mid-1950s, when he co-founded the Noigandres group, de Campos used innovative typography and verbal permutation to create graphically arresting, multi-layered poems. Last year his work was included in "Brazilian Visual Poetry," an exhibition at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin [see A.i.A., May '02].

Bhupen Khakhar, 69, Indian painter, died Aug. 8 in Baroda, India, of prostate cancer. Largely self-taught, he was influenced by both Pop art and Italian Renaissance painting, in addition to Indian modernism and older traditions. In the 1980s, he began to refer to his homosexuality in his oil and watercolor works, which were done in a childlike manner. He had a solo show at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1986, and was included in the 1992 Documenta. He is the subject of a 1998 book by Timothy Hyman.

James Kelly, 89, painter, died June 29 in New York. A creator of colorful, thickly impastoed canvases, he was a member of the San Francisco Abstract-Expressionist school, along with Richard Diebenkom, Sam Francis and Frank Lobdell. He was included in the 1954 "Merry-go-Round Show" curated by Walter Hopps on the Santa Monica Pier, and was featured in "San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism" in 1996 at SFMOMA.

James Romano, 56, curator of Egyptian art at the Brooklyn Museum, died in a car accident on Aug. 11 in Lynbrook, N.Y. He joined the museum's staff in 1976 and was appointed curator in 1988. He had recently completed an extensive reinstallation of the museum's internationally renowned Egyptian collection.

Albert Field, 86, a Dali expert, died Aug. 4 in Queens, N.Y. Initially an English and math teacher, he became a fan of Dali's work when he visited the "Dream of Venus" show at the 1939 World's Fair [see p. 70]. After meeting the artist in the early '40s, he began working with him to identify forgeries, becoming his official archivist in 1955. Dali appointed him to catalogue both authentic works and fakes. Auction houses, museums and collectors came to rely on his expertise, and he was sought out in 20 art-fraud investigations. He traveled extensively to track down the provenance of Dali's works and became acquainted with many of the forgers. In 1998, he self-published the Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali. Field bequeathed all of his research materials to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Joseph R. Wilder, 82, surgeon, artist and author, died on July 1 of a heart attack. Largely self-taught as an artist, Wilder specialized in painting race cars, athletes and surgical procedures. His pictures were shown at Allan Stone and Babcock galleries, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Edward P. Alexander, 96, museum expert, died on July 31 in Chevy Chase, Md. He was president of the American Association of Museums and founder and first director of the University of Delaware's museums studies program. His publications include Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums.