Remembering Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz, Robert A. M. Stern, and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen
This week, we honor an advocate for women’s leadership, a museum architect, and a photographer of dreamscapes.
In Memoriam is published every Wednesday afternoon and honors those we recently lost in the art world.
Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz (1928–2025)
Advocate for women's leadership in arts
She was a founding member of ArtTable, a founder of The Photographer's Gallery, director of commissions at Pace Gallery, and former president of the consulting firm Works of Art for Public Spaces. "She was a force of nature," Jessica L. Porter, executive director of ArtTable, told Hyperallergic, "direct, generous, and unwavering in her belief in women's leadership."
Tony Benedict (1936–2025)
Storyboard artist and writer
He began his career on Disney's Sleeping Beauty in 1956, and worked on The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and more.
Kristján Guðmundsson (1941–2025)
Icelandic conceptual artist
A self-taught artist, he was a member of SÚM gallery, an artist-run space influenced by Fluxus and Arte Povera, and represented Iceland at the 1982 Venice Biennale. His work was spare and cerebral, experimenting with mark-making and found objects.
Myroslava Kopcha (2000–2025)
Ukrainian graphic artist and designer
She worked in etching, monotype, engraving, and more, exploring themes of femininity, corporeality, and memory.
Jose Lozano (1959–2025)
Chicano cartoonist
Raised in Mexico and Southern California, he blended both influences in paintings, drawings, and public art.
Charles Dee Mitchell (1951–2025)
North Texas curator, critic, and patron
He wrote art reviews about the Dallas and North Texas art scenes, curated exhibitions at The Reading Room, the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, and more, and was an avid supporter of local artists.
Alfreda McHale (d. 2025)
British installation artist
Her work ranged from kitchen shelves with buttons in jars to outdoor metal bouquets. "The refusal to separate the domestic from the artistic or the literal from the imaginary were hallmarks of her home as well as her work," Amanda Hopkinson wrote in a remembrance.
Yoshio Nakamura (1925–2025)
Artist and educator
In 1952, he began teaching high school art in Whittier, California, before spending nearly 30 years as art professor, dean, and vice president at Rio Hondo College.
Howard L. Rehs (1959–2025)
Gallerist and authority on 19th- and 20th century French art
He was president of Rehs Galleries, Inc., and an authority on French academic art, helping put together the catalogue raisonnés of artists including Daniel Ridgway Knight. "He subsidized living artists with the profits he made from the sales of bygone legends," Michael Maiello wrote in a remembrance.
Michael H. Smith (1945–2025)
Southern California artist, curator, and art dealer
He opened his eponymous gallery in 1971, and went on to work at other galleries, as well as the museums at University of California, Irvine and the California Institute of Technology. He was also a conceptual photographer and founded a nonprofit for marine research.
Ruth Thorne-Thomsen (1943–2025)
Photographer of the uncanny
She made what she called "environmental collages," postcard-sized photos taken with a pinhole camera that were staged and sometimes recombined. Her work is held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and more.
Robert A. M. Stern (1939–2025)
Architect, educator, and writer
He designed the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. "Buildings can be icons or objects," he once said, "but they still have to engage with the larger whole."
Michael Twyman (1943–2025)
British typography pioneer
In the 1970s, he founded the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at Reading University. Through his teaching and scholarship, he inspired many who went on to leadership positions in design firms worldwide.
