Tim Rollins, influential American artist and educator, dies at 62

Tim Rollins, a pioneering American artist and educator, died at age 62. The news was announced via a brief Facebook post by critic Jerry Saltz, followed by tributes from friends and colleagues. The cause of death remains unknown. Rollins began his career as an assistant to conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth, whom he considered a key reference. In 1981, he started teaching art at Intermediate School 52 in the South Bronx, New York, a neighborhood marked by social tensions, marginalization, and crime. Believing art should serve as a tool for education and individual emancipation, he developed an innovative pedagogical method combining the study of literary classics with drawing and painting techniques. He founded the collective Kids of Survival (K.O.S) and a permanent workshop called "Art and Knowledge," which involved dozens of young people over thirty years. Rollins described his pedagogical influences as Italian: Gramsci, Montessori, Bruno Munari, and Enzo Mari. He envisioned the K.O.S as an "organic democracy" akin to jazz or gospel music—improvisational, unpredictable, yet always identifiable as art. The working method of Tim Rollins & K.O.S, widely emulated, began with reading and analyzing literary texts, followed by discussion and interpretation, leading to the development of imagery or iconography. Rollins stated, "When you work with young artists as a true mentor, you make art using the future tense. It is an honor and a great responsibility."