Remembering Glen Baxter, Pat Steir, Melvin Edwards
This week, we honor an absurdist cartoonist, a trailblazing feminist artist, and a sculptor who probed the history of violence in the US.
In Memoriam is published every Wednesday afternoon and honors those we recently lost in the art world.
Glen Baxter (1944–2026)
British cartoonist and artist
His absurdist drawings and cartoons, inspired by adventure comics and pulp fiction, have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and more. He exhibited regularly at Flowers Gallery, and his work is held in the collections of the Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Melvin Edwards (1937–2026)
Minimalist sculptor of welded steel
He welded industrial materials into abstract sculptures that engaged with modern art, race, civil rights, and protest. He was most renowned for his Lynch Fragments (1936–2026), steel works incorporating chains, barbed wire, and other materials to probe the history of racist violence in the United States. His works are held at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and many more.
Pat Steir (1938–2026)
Trailblazing feminist artist
Her conceptual- and Minimalism-adjacent paintings required and embodied choreography of flinging, pouring, and layering paint, often from a height. “I am the painter looking from a huge distance at the huge sky and the mountain looming,” she told Anne Waldman in a 2003 interview. She was involved in the women's movement, part of the founding board of Heresies Collective, a founding member of Printed Matter, Inc, and sitting on the editorial board of Semiotext(e).
Ali Sbeity (d. 2026)
Lebanese portrait painter
He created murals for schools in Beirut, Lebanon, made works in wood and ceramics for a living, and participated in numerous local exhibitions. He was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Kafra, according to local media reports and the international artistic freedom organization Artists at Risk Connection (ARC).
Josefina Aguilar (1945–2026)
Leading Mexican folk artist
She depicted everyday life using red clay and acrylic house paint, and continued to work even after losing her sight more than 10 years before. Her work was popularized by Nelson Rockefeller, a collector who visited her home in the late 1970s, and has shown her work at the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Mexican Museum in San Francisco, and more.
Neil Cossons (1939–2026)
British historian, museum director, and chair of English Heritage
He was an authority on industrial heritage and directed multiple institutions, serving as chair of the English Heritage Trust between 2000 and 2007 and chairman of the Royal College of Art afterward, among many other positions.
Charles Debenham (1933–2026)
British painter, designer, and educator
In the 1960s, he designed postage stamps for the British government, as well as worked as a design consultant for a wide range of companies and organizations. In parallel, he was a painter who captured the buildings and landscapes of East Anglia, and taught at the Greyfriars Adult Education Centre, Colchester, England.
Andreas Karayian (1943–2026)
Cypriot painter and writer
One of the foremost figures of contemporary Cypriot art ‚ and one who challenged prevailing conventions, his work included everything from visual art to public discourse. In particular, his visual language was introspective, erotic, and inflected by literature. He participated in the 2001 Venice Biennale
Lloyd Le Blanc (1940–2026)
American-British bronze sculptor
He was renowned for massive bronze sculptures depicting flora and fauna, including many for the gardens and hotels of celebrity chef Raymond Blanc. With his wife, Judith Homes Drewry, he converted old farm buildings in Saxby, Leicestershire, England, into studios and bronze studios.
