It’s the second day of a brand new year, and I’d like to take a moment to look back at some of the towering talent we lost in 2025 through the appreciations and obituaries written by the arts staff.
A caveat: The Times strives to acknowledge significant figures in arts and culture when they die, but due to the fast-paced nature of daily news, we often miss people we wish we hadn’t, so this list is far from inclusive.
“Appreciation: Frank Gehry was the architect who changed music,” Times classical music critic Mark Swed on the unique way that Gehry’s designs interacted with — and elevated — sound.
“Diane Keaton, film legend, fashion trendsetter and champion of L.A.’s past, dead at 79,” Keaton, who appeared on Broadway in “Hair” and “Play It Again, Sam” before becoming a movie star, didn’t consider herself an artist, but she was a patron and published several books that captured her longtime interest in photography and collage-making.
“Appreciation: Richard Foreman, an auteur of consciousness, did things his way,” writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty of the experimental playwright.
“Playwright Richard Greenberg, the Mozart of verbal arias, brought an exquisite fluency to the American stage,” an appreciation by McNulty.
“Appreciation: Tom Stoppard reinvigorated the comedy of ideas,” McNulty on the genius of the playwright.
“Elizabeth Franz, Tony-winning ‘Death of a Salesman’ actor, dies at 84,” an obituary of the prolific stage actor whose career spanned more than five decades.
“Appreciation: Playwright Athol Fugard proved the pen could be mightier than the sword,” McNulty on the 92-year-old dramatist’s career and its deep impact on South Africa.
“Appreciation: Joe Goode beautifully blurred the lines of the art world,” Times art critic Christopher Knight on how the artist helped establish the vibrant Los Angeles art scene of the 1960s.
“Appreciation: Robert Wilson, who changed everything he touched, was the most influential theater artist of our time,” Swed on the lasting importance of the avante-garde theater maker who collaborated closely with Philip Glass.
“The lasting legacy of L.A.-born ceramicist Michael Frimkess,” a look at the legacy of the Boyle Heights-born artist who died at 88.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt inviting you to join me on a journey of remembrance. Here’s your arts and culture news for the week.
The year in pictures
Cynthia Erivo, April 14, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
We recently shared The Times’ best entertainment photos of 2025 and the year in news photography. Here are some of the most interesting images we’ve captured this year in the arts world.
A preview of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Geffen Galleries, June 26, 2025.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Singer Angelique Kidjo performs with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Aug. 28, 2025, at the Hollywood Bowl.
(Hon Wing Chiu / For The Times)
The cast of “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”: Bisserat Tseggai, left, Jordan Rice, Victoire Charles and Claudia Logan, Oct. 1, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Edward V. Valentine’s “Jefferson Davis,” at the “MONUMENTS” exhibit at MOCA, Oct. 10, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Gustavo Dudamel conducts Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, Oct. 11, 2025, in Inglewood.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)
June Squibb, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York City.
(Evelyn Freja / For The Times)
Ben Platt, Dec. 4, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The SoCal scene
The exhibition floor at the LA Art Show in 2022.
(LA Art Show)
Art for 2026
The first big art event of the new year kicks off Wednesday when the 31st edition of the LA Art Show opens downtown. Galleries and institutions from around the world will exhibit art across the vast spaces of the Los Angeles Convention Center. This year’s program includes the debut of an invitation-only Latin American Pavilion, curated by Marisa Caichiolo, who also curates the DIVERSEartLA program. Among the other featured presentations are works by Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri and South African artist Esther Mahlangu, plus a solo exhibition of abstract paintings by Sylvester Stallone. The show continues through Jan. 11.
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Culture news
Idris Elba arriving at the 2004 Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
That’s Sir Idris to you
Actors Idris Elba and Cynthia Erivo were among the more than 1,100 people on King Charles III’s annual New Year Honours List released this week. The British tradition recognizes people who have “made achievements in public life” and “committed themselves to serving and helping the UK.” Elba, known for television roles in “The Wire” and “Luther” and movies including “Beasts of No Nation” and “Thor,” was knighted for services to young people. “Wicked” star Erivo, a Tony and Grammy winner and three-time Oscar nominee, received a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, for services to music and drama.
Freedom from fascism
On a recent fall day, Catherine Rampell of the Bulwark was given a guided tour of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., by the artist’s granddaughter Daisy Rockwell. In an article published this week, “The MAGAfication of Norman Rockwell,” Daisy expressed her displeasure with the Trump administration’s misappropriation of her grandfather’s work to promote the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s anti-immigrant operations. “Norman Rockwell was antifa,” Daisy told Rampell. “They used [the paintings] … as though his work aligned with their values, i.e., promoting this segregationist vision of America. And so of course we were upset by this, because Norman Rockwell was really very clearly anti-segregationist.” Through most of Rockwell’s career, he depicted American life largely through a white lens, but eventually came to a reckoning with some of his own views, chronicling some of the most significant moments of the civil rights movement. In November, the Rockwell family published a letter in USA Today detailing how the artist’s “efforts to eradicate prejudices both within himself and others led him to explore issues of racism, violence and segregation well into his 70s.”
Russia reopens Mariupol theater where hundreds died
In March 2022, a Russian air strike killed more than 600 civilians sheltering inside a historic theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. This week, the Associated Press reported that Moscow-installed authorities in the now occupied region reopened the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater with a gala concert on the building’s newly rebuilt main stage. Russian state media outlets shared images of the building’s marbled pillars and staircases as dancers, wearing kokoshniks, traditional Russian headdresses, performed. Mariupol’s Ukrainian city council, which left the city when it became occupied, denounced the “restoration,” calling it “a cynical attempt to conceal the traces of a war crime” in a statement on Telegram.
— Kevin Crust
And last but not least
“Twelfth Night,” with Moses Sumney, left, Kapil Talwalkar, Junior Nyong’o and Lupita Nyong’o at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, which was broadcast on PBS’ “Great Performances” in November and is available to stream via PBS Passport.
(Joseph Sinnott)
Times television critic Robert Lloyd wrapped his year with an essay, “6 ways public broadcasting will improve your life. And that’s a promise.” One suggestion is to make a tax-deductible $5-a-month donation to PBS. That gifts gets you “PBS Passport,” public television’s all-access streaming platform, which offers an endless bounty of quality programming. Key among the offerings of interest to readers of this newsletter are programs such as “Great Performances,” “Austin City Limits” and “Artbound,” plus a rabbit hole of regional arts programming with something for every taste. As Lloyd wrote, “If you can’t find something to watch or listen to here, you are simply an incurious person.”