Hou Hanru

Roughly two weeks after it was announced that Catherine David would no longer curate the 2009 Biennale de Lyon, Hou Hanru has stepped in to fill her position. The China-born, Paris- and San Francisco–based curator is director of exhibitions and public programs as well as chair of exhibition and museum studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. He has consulted for a number of international institutions, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and has taught and lectured extensively. He is a correspondent for Flash Art International and a contributor to a number of other art publications. Hanru curated the 2007 Istanbul Biennale, the Chinese pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale, Paris's Nuit Blanche in 2004, and the Gwangju Biennale in 2002, among other exhibitions.

Farewells

LOS ANGELES—Restoration architect Martin Eli Weil has died at the age of 68 of a presumed heart attack. He was found in his home on February 24 by a neighbor, reports the Los Angeles Times. Weil was involved in the restoration of such influential Los Angeles structures as the El Capitan Theatre and the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Storer House. He was an early member of the West Adams Heritage Association and a founding member of the Los Angeles Conservancy, serving as its president twice in the 1980s. Through his work with the conservancy, he aided in the preservation of buildings including Pasadena City Hall and the Watts Towers. Weil worked as a restoration architectural consultant for the cities of San Gabriel and La Verne and was known for his attention to detail. In 2006 he was the first recipient of the Martin Eli Weil Preservation Award from the L.A. Conservancy, an award for excellence in preservation that was named in his honor.

RICHMOND,Va.—Retired curator of Egyptian art Virginia Burton died February 21 at the age of 90, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. After graduating from Barnard College, Burton worked in the public relations department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and later in the Egyptology department of the Brooklyn Museum. In 1960, she returned to the Met as a curatorial assistant and worked her way up to associate curator. She traveled extensively in search of ancient acquisitions for the museum; one of her most noteworthy contributions to the institution was overseeing the transfer and installation of Egypt’s Temple of Dendur, which was given to the U.S. in 1965 and the Met in 1967. In 1977 Burton left her position at the Met in order to retire to Urbanna, Va.

MASON, Ohio—Graphic designer Noel Martin, 86, died of leukemia on February 27, the New York Times reports. Martin was one of the first to champion the use of contemporary typographic design for art museum catalogs. He also streamlined the look of industrial trade catalogs and designed minimalist logos and trademarks for multiple companies. Although he studied painting, drawing, and printmaking at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Martin was self taught in typography. In 1947 he became the Cincinnati Art Museum's first graphic designer and later went on to work at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. In 1953 his work was shown at New York's Museum of Modern Art alongside that of Herbert Bayer, Leo Lionni, and Ben Shahn in the landmark exhibition "Four American Designers." In 1958 he was commissioned to redesign the cover and inside pages of The New Republic, creating a format that the magazine kept for decades. He taught at both the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati.