Hyperallergic In Memoriam: Bruno Lucchesi, Pat Oliphant, Edward Lucie-Smith, and More

Key facts

• Bruno Lucchesi (1926–2026) was a figurative sculptor whose works are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, and Smithsonian American Art Museum.
• Yaacov Agam (1928–2026), Israeli kinetic artist, created the world's largest menorah and a fire-breathing fountain; included in MoMA's 1965 'The Responsive Eye' and had a 1980 Guggenheim retrospective.
• Chua Mia Tee (1931–2026), Singaporean social realist painter, co-founded the Equator Art Society in 1956, won the Cultural Medallion in 2015, and had a 2021 retrospective at National Gallery Singapore.
• Dion E. Clarke (1928–2026) founded the Harlem Fine Arts Show in 2009, the largest traveling African diasporic art exhibition in the US.
• Edward Lucie-Smith (1933–2026), British art critic and poet, wrote over 100 books and profiled Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
• Rudolph 'Rudy' Montanez (1942–2026) showed at the 1975 Whitney Biennial and multiple MoMA exhibitions; his work is in the Yale University Art Gallery.
• Pat Oliphant (1935–2026), political cartoonist, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1967 and was syndicated in over 500 newspapers.
• The obituaries were published by Hyperallergic on July 16, 2026.