Obituaries - Artworld - Fred Sandback - Skunder Boghossian - C.C. Wang - Marilyn Fischbach - Obituary

Dorothy Miller, former MOMA curator, died on July 11. Her obituary appears on p. 29.

Fred Sandback, 59, Minimalist artist, committed suicide on June 23 in his New York studio. He was known for his subtle, site-specific installations that sculpt space using stretched lengths of colored yarn, and sometimes string and wire. Tacking the yarn to points on the wall, ceiling or floor, he "drew" geometric configurations that quietly command the spaces that they barely seem to occupy. He also made cut drawings using a knife and mat board, and, more recently, small, painted wood bas-reliefs with criss-crossing incised grooves. Earlier this year at the new Dia:Beacon facility, he installed a group of works that almost vanish in the immense space yet hold their own against neighboring, more physically imposing works such as those by Donald Judd and Michael Heizer [see A.i.A., July '01].

Sandback had two shows in Germany in 1968 while still a student at Yale, including one at the Munich gallery of Heiner Friedrich, later a co-founder of the Dia Art Foundation, and the other at Konrad Fischer's gallery in Dusseldorf. His first New York solo show was in 1969 at Virginia Dwan's gallery. Dia funded the artist's namesake museum in Winchendon, Mass., from 1981 to 1996, when Sandback closed it. Over the years he showed in New York with John Weber, Brooke Alexander, Marian Goodman, David Nolan and, more recently, Lawrence Markey, and Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago. Among his museum shows were those at MOMA [1978], P.S. 1 [1978] and Dia [1988, 1996] in New York, and at various museums in Europe [see interview with the artist, A.L.A., May '97].

Skunder Boghossian, 65, African artist whose works blend European modernist styles with intricate patterning, died on May 4 in Washington, D.C. He often worked in oil paint, crayon and ink on bark and animal skins. Born in Ethiopia, he studied at the Slade School in London and taught in Paris before returning to Ethiopia to teach. His experience abroad helped him to change the course of art-making in his home country. He moved to the U.S. in 1969 and became an artist in-residence at Atlanta University and an instructor at the Atlanta Center for Black Art. From 1974 to 2000, he taught at Howard University. His works are included in the collections of the Musee d'Art Mederne in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Museum of African Art in Washington.

C.C. Wang, 96, artist and collector, died July 3 in Manhattan. In 1936, he served as an adviser for a London exhibition of art from the Palace Museum in Beijing, which afforded him unprecedented access to all the paintings in the imperial collection. He moved to the U.S. in 1949 and studied at the Art Students League in New York. His abstract, sometimes calligraphic style reflects the influence of Chinese painting and Abstract Expressionism. A show of his own paintings appeared at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle in 1989. Over the years, the Metropolitan Museum bought 85 pieces from Wang's collection of Chinese painting.

Marilyn Fischbach, 72, veteran art dealer, died on June 15 in Paris after a long illness. In 1960 she founded her Manhattan gallery on Madison Avenue at 67th Street, where she gave early exposure to emerging artists such as Ronald Bladen, Eva Hesse and Alex Katz. She subsequently relocated to 57th Street, where, in 1966, the historic "Eccentric Abstraction" show, curated by Lucy Lippard, took place; artists included in this paradigm-shifting event were, among others, Louise Bourgeois, Hesse, Keith Sonnier, Bruce Nauman and Gary Kuehn. When she relocated again, she began showing more realistic works by artists such as Jane Freilicher and Nell Blaine. Beginning in the mid '60s, Fischbach divided her time between New York and Paris. Though her involvement tapered off in the 1970s, she remained a partner in the gallery until her death. In 2001, the gallery moved to Chelsea.

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