Obituaries - Obituary

Ibram Lassaw, 90, sculptor, died in East Hampton, N.Y., on Dec. 30, 2003. He is best known for his web-like welded metal sculptures that are suggestive of organic systems and that sometimes reflect his interest in the cosmos. Born in Egypt to Russian emigres, he moved to New York with his family at age eight. As a struggling artist in the 1930s, he became friends with such figures as Arshile Corky, Joseph Campbell and, later, Pollock and de Kooning. In 1936, he helped found the American Abstract Artists, a group dedicated to nonrepresentational forms devoid of political or social content and independent of art of the past. He participated in the group's annual exhibitions from 1937 to 1951, and served as its president in 1946-49. In 1949, he became a founding member of the Club, which also included Ad Reinhardt and Franz Kline.

Lassaw's early pieces were in clay and plaster, but he discovered that the materials were too weak for the open-work forms he wanted to make. Using skills he'd picked up while in the Army, he made his first welded work in 1938. Fusing rods and metal pieces into architectonic structures, he often treated the surfaces with droplets of metal or with acids and alkaloids to achieve variations in color. In 1951, he made his first sale to Nelson Rockefeller, who would purchase another 10 works. That same year he had his first solo show at the Samuel Kootz Gallery. Retrospectives of his work were mounted at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, N.Y. (1973), and Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, N.Y., (1988). More recently he showed with Anita Shapolsky Gallery, where he was included in a group show at the time of his death.

Wally Hedrick, 75, Beat-generation and Funk artist, died Dec. 17 of congestive heart failure in Sonoma County. He was known for his art-world contrariness and for going against mainstream trends. His work ranges from abstract canvases to paintings that layer imagery and text, often incorporating pages from catalogues, to assemblages made of urban debris such as beer cans and saw blades. He also made politically themed work, particularly large-scale black oil paintings, or "blots," intended to express his opposition to the Vietnam War and, more recently, the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Hedrick taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1964 to '70, where he canceled classes for two semesters to protest the Vietnam War. He married painter Jay DeFeo in 1954, the same year that he co-founded Six Gallery, where poets such as Jack Kereuac and Allen Ginsberg gave readings and "happening"-like events took place. He showed regularly with Gallery Paule Anglim and more recently with Linc Art, both in San Francisco. Among his awards were three NEA fellowships, given in 196& 1982 and 1993-94.

Caroline Wiess Law, Houston collector and philanthropist, died in her sleep on Dec. 24, her 85th birthday. She became a member of the Museum of Fine Arts's board in 1964 and, with her second husband Theodore Newton Law, began donating works from their collection, including examples by Picasso, Matisse and de Kooning. In May 1989, the couple purchased land adjacent to the museum for the construction of the Audrey Jones Beck Building, which opened in 2000. In 1998, the MFAH board named its original building in her honor. She also served on the board of the Menil Collection in the late '80s; the Laws contributed $1.5 million toward the creation and endowment of the Menil's Rothko Chapel.

Vrej Baghoomian, 61, contemporary art dealer, died of lung cancer on Nov. 1 in San Jose, Calif. Born in Iran and raised in England, he moved to the U.S. in the 1970s. In the 1980s, after working with art dealer Tony Shafrazi, his cousin, Baghoomian opened his gallery at 611 Broadway, and later moved to 555 Broadway. After financial difficulties, Baghoomian closed his gallery in 1992. He showed such artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat James Lee Byars, Andy Warhol, Arman, Bernar Venet and Yoko Ono. In the '80s, he also co-published the art magazine Eastvillage.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group