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# Remembering Frank Gehry, Martin Parr, and Mel Leipzig
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-frank-gehry-martin-parr-and-mel-leipzig/
- Published: 2025-12-10T22:13:37.000Z
- Updated: 2025-12-10T22:13:37.000Z
- Description: This week, we honor a sculptor of buildings, a photographer of the absurd, and the “Chekhov of Trenton.”
- Author: Lisa Yin Zhang
- Tags: In Memoriam, Community, Obituary

[*In Memoriam*](https://hyperallergic.com/tag/in-memoriam/) *is published every Wednesday afternoon and honors those we recently lost in the art world.*

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**Frank Gehry** (1929–2025)  
*Architect who turned buildings into sculptures*

He made iconic postmodernist designs for museums, libraries, and concert halls, with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao being his most instantly recognizable work. He was a "true original," Mary Anne Gilmartin, an architect who worked with Gehry, told *Hyperallergic*. "An artist, an architect, and a fearless visionary who changed the way we experience cities."

[*Read the obituary*](https://hyperallergic.com/architect-frank-gehry-who-turned-buildings-into-sculptures-dies-at-96/)

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**Jane Birt** (d. 2025)  
*Anglo-American watercolor and oils*

Her work was [shown](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/dec/04/jane-birt-obituary?ref=hyperallergic.com) in galleries across Britain. She illustrated multiple books, including a travelogue and a co-written memoir. 

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**Gillian Hopwood** (1927–2025)  
*British architect who designed buildings after Nigerian independence*

With her late husband, John Godwin, she [designed](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/dec/05/gillian-hopwood-obituary?ref=hyperallergic.com) around 1,000 buildings for their architectural practice, including schools built in the aftermath of Nigeria's independence from Great Britain. 

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**Napoleon Jones-Henderson** (1943–2025)  
*Weaver and multimedia artist who was part of AfriCOBRA*

He made large-scale textiles that promoted the collective's aims of positive images of Black pride and self-determination. He also taught at various colleges across the East Coast. 

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**Mel Leipzig** (1935–2025)  
*Painter who was the "Chekhov of Trenton"*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2025/12/1b.jpg)

Mel Leipzig with his paintings (photo by Susan Lynn Smith, courtesy Gallery Henoch)

A figurative painter, he [depicted](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/arts/design/mel-leipzig-dead.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) fellow residents of New Jersey — relatives, neighbors, students, colleagues — in dreamy compositions. 

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**Susan Loppert** (d. 2025)  
*British administrator who brought art into hospitals*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2025/12/Susan-Loppert.jpg)

Susan Loppert (photo by CW+ charity via [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/cwpluscharity/posts/were-sorry-to-hear-of-the-death-of-susan-loppert-she-was-a-pioneering-force-in-b/1315268510632950/))

She [was](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/nov/28/susan-loppert-obituary?ref=hyperallergic.com) the pioneering force behind the development of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Arts in the 1990s, which folded performing and visual art into the hospital. 

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**Martin Parr** (1952–2025)  
*British photographer of the absurd*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2025/12/image-76.png)

Martin Parr at the Victoria and Albert Museum (photo via [Wikimedia Commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MartinParrVA130524%5F%286%5Fof%5F7%29%5F%28cropped%5F2%29.jpg?ref=hyperallergic.com), [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en?ref=hyperallergic.com)) 

He [was](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/arts/design/martin-parr-dead.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) widely recognized for playful and tongue-in-cheek photographs — what he called "subjective documentary." He also published books and worked in commercial advertising. 

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**Selwyn Pekeur** (d. 2025)  
*South African artist and teacher* 

A primary school teacher who [promoted](https://paarlpost.co.za/paarls-picasso-selwyn-pekeur-dies-at-68/?ref=hyperallergic.com) visual arts, he was described as "Paarl's Picasso."