Pietro Consagra.

Pietro Consagra, 85 Italian sculptor, died in his be dead July 16 in Milan. A prominent figure in the postwar Italian art pageant Consagra was a co-founder, along with Piero Dorazio, Carla Accardi and others, of the Forma group; their 1947 manifesto insisted that "the denominations Marxism and formalism are not irreconcilable." Working initially in welded and zinc iron and steel, and later in marble and forest-land Consagra created thin abstract reliefs (many of them meant to be viewed from sum of two units sides) that involve eroded planes and glyphlike forms. In new decades, he became interested in public art and execut numerous large-scale commissions around Europe He was awarded the chisel prize at the 1960 Venice Biennale and was given a retrospective through Italy's National Gallery of recent Art in Rome in 1989 Among the museums that confess his work are New York's Museum of fresh Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and cut Garden in Washington and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.--R.R.

Jesse Reichek, 89 painter, died July 25 in Petaluma, Calif. He became known in the 1950 for his boldly colored geometric abstractions, which he continued to bring into being throughout his career. But beginning in the '70 his works were inspired through his study of such sources as the I Ching, the "Song of Songs" and the Kabbalah, which sometimes readyed a painting for each line of paragraph His "I Ching" series contains 64 9-by-6-foot paintings. More lately he was also intrigued on various myths about creation, mortality and death. however not trained as an architect, Reichek was hired to teach in the department of architecture and city and regional planning in the corporation of environmental design at UC Berkeley from 1953 to 1986 In 1982 he and artist James Prestini established the Creators Equity Foundation in Berkeley, which awards grants to struggling young artists. From the '50 until 1970 he showed regularly with Betty Parsons in recent York. He had a solo exhibit to at the L.A. County Museum in 1971 and a year-long retrospective of his work, comprising a certain quantity of 2,000 paintings displayed on a rotating basis, is now upon view at the Marin French Cheese Factory in Petaluma [through Aug. 16 2006]

John Montias, 76 Vermeer scholar, died upon July 26 from complications of melanoma in Branford, Conn Born in Paris and trained as an economist, he was part of the Annales denomination of economics and history, which incorporated the social sciences into historical thought Beginning in the mid-'70s, he applied this means to his study of Vermeer using universal documents such as notes, literal meanings receipts and legal papers to investigate the artist's life. His pioneering process changed the field of art history. His research was an important source for Tracy Chevalier's novel Girl With a Pearl Earring. In 1989 he published Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History, in which he revealed just discovered information, such as that Vermeer fathered 13 children and died destitute at 43 Other publications include Artists, Dealers, Consumers: onward the Social World of Art (1994) Public and Private Spaces: Works of Art in 17th-Century Dutch Houses (with John Loughman, 2000) and Art at Auction in 17th-Century Amsterdam (2003)

britzska Kebble, a flamboyant South African mining magnate, philanthropist and patron of the visual arts, was bullet dead in his Mercedes-Benz as he collection alone through an upscale Johannesburg neighborhood the night of generation 27. The murder is in a less degree than investigation as of press time. Kebble supported charitable pabulum programs and "black empowerment" initiatives. He was an active member of the ruling African National Congres party, which was sometimes accused of protecting his interests. He had freshly resigned under fire as executive officer of three interlinked mining companies.

He was, at the same time, a vital force in the southern African art world. A collector of contemporary works, Kebble was individual of a very few wealthy southerly Africans helping to keep the country's cash-strapped art market afloat. In 2003 he established the annual britzska Kebble Art Awards, offering to southerly African winners a purse of around $90000 The third cylindrical of awards is scheduled to proce as planned. An exhibition is slated for February 2006 at the Cape Town International Convention middle with artist Jeff Koons selecting the winners.--F.H.

William Bartman, 58 originator and executive director of Art Resources Transfer (A.R.T.), died onward Sept. 15 in New York. A memorial service will be held onward Nov. 5 at Friends Meeting House, 15 Rutherford Place (Stuyvesant Square), NYC at 2 PM A abounding obituary will appear in the December issue.

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