Obituaries - briefs - Brief Article - Obituary

Patterson Ewen, 76, leading Canadian abstract painter, died of kidney failure on Feb. 17 in London, Ontario. He is best known for his large works of the '70s and '80s, gouged and painted plywood panels that often had such materials as chains, fencing and coconut fiber attached to their surfaces. In the '40s, he studied at the school of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. His early landscapes, portraits and still lifes evolved into hard-edge abstraction before he found his signature style in 1971. He was often included in surveys of Canadian art and represented his country at the 1982 Venice Biennale. The Art Gallery of Ontario held a retrospective of his work in 1996. He showed in New York at Parma and Paolo Baldacci and, in 2000, at Jack Shainman.

Terry Schoonhoven, 56, painter, printmaker and muralist, died of cancer on Dec. 21 in L.A. In 1969, he founded the Fine Arts Squad with Victor Henderson, which also included Jim Frazen and Leonard Koren; the group was active until 1974. Schoonhoven is best known for the more than 40 murals executed during his career, including Isle of California (1970-72), which depicted an apocalyptic, post-"Big One" scene. A similar work, Downtown Los Angeles Underwater (1979) is a large scene on linen, now in the collection of the L.A. County Museum. He painted a mural over the Harbor Freeway for the 1984 Olympics. He also accepted commissions in San Antonio, Minneapolis and St. Louis.

Anne Poor, 84, veteran realist painter, died Jan. 12 in Nyack, N.Y. In the 1930s, Poor helped her father, Henry Varnum Poor, paint WPA murals in Washington, D.C., and later received recognition for her depictions of military life while she was a member of the Women's Army Corps. She did a series of landscapes for the book Greece (1964), which included a text by Henry Miller. In 1992, she had a successful show of paintings of family, friends and pets at Terry Dintenfass in Manhattan. In summer 2001, the Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack held a show of her works on paper. She also taught at the Skowhegan School from 1947 to '61, and served on its board from 1963 to '83.

Theresa Bernstein, 111, painter of New York City scenes, died Feb. 12. In the 1920s, she helped found, with John Sloan, the Society of Independent Artists. Over the years her subject matter included soldiers, hippies, break dancers and basketball players, as well as still lifes and scenes of Jewish life. She recently showed with Joan Whalen Fine Art in New York.

Rudolf Staffel, 90, ceramist and educator, died Jan. 20 in Alfred, N.Y. A professor emeritus of the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where he taught from 1940 to '78, Staffel worked in stoneware for many years but was best known for his translucent porcelain. His "Light Gatherers"--small, irregular, unglazed vessels, hand-formed or wheel-thrown--combined in their thinness and perforations the visual effects that had earlier attracted him to watercolor and glass. Staffel showed at Helen Drutt Gallery in Philadelphia since 1974. He had retrospectives at Temple University Temple Gallery in 1989 and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Applied Art, Helsinki, in 1996-97. He received the Mayor's Art Award in Philadelphia and the Gold Medal of the American Crafts Council in New York.

--"Artworld" is compiled by
Stephanie Cash and David Ebony

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