Marc Camille Chaimowicz, who challenged the distinctions between art, décor and design, has died at 77, his gallery Cabinet confirms.
The influence of Paris-born, London-based Chaimowicz has been described as ‘hard to pinpoint, but… substantial’ by critic Gaby Wood in 2018. The artist is known for his room-size installations that obfuscate distinctions between private life and public art, filling them with wallpapers, textiles, sculpture, furniture, ceramics and collages – typically of his own design – that playfully interrogate place, memory and home.
In 2011, ArtReview featured Chaimowicz on its cover, with Neal Brown writing of Chaimowicz’s ‘world’ that the writer first came to witness in 1976 as the artist’s student at the Hornsey College of Art, London. ‘His was a wandering presence,’ writes Brown, ‘on the margins but not marginalised. He was, whether amused or appalled by things, unfailingly courteous and affirming.’ He continues, ‘It is a world that contains tender love and affection’.
