Overview
- Alexander Gray Associates confirmed he died in Baltimore at 88, with reports differing on whether the date was March 29 or March 30.
- He is best known for the Lynch Fragments, small welded works of chains, tools, spikes, and barbed wire that confront the history of racist and social violence.
- In 1970 he received a Whitney Museum solo exhibition, described as the institution’s first by a Black sculptor, and he later protested the museum’s exclusion of Black artists.
- He taught at Rutgers University from 1972 to 2002 and worked at both table scale and in later large stainless-steel pieces and public sculptures.
- Late-career recognition included a 2015 Nasher retrospective, a presentation at the Venice Biennale, a 2021 City Hall Park survey, a 2022 Dia Beacon show, and a European tour through 2026 that reaches the Palais de Tokyo; he is survived by his wife Diala Touré, three daughters, and a stepson.