American artist Tim Rollins has died aged 62. In 1982, while teaching at a middle school in the Bronx, Rollins founded the Art & Knowledge Workshop with student collective K.O.S. (Kids of Survival). He continued to work with the collective, whose past and present members number over 50, for more than three decades. Together with K.O.S., Rollins produced allegorical paintings, sculptures and drawings (such as Animal Farm – G7, 1989–92) from printed materials ranging from musical scores and literature to legal documents and comic books in an effort to challenge ‘elite notions of fine art that put boundaries on who can appreciate art, who can make art, and who can feel the impact of that art’. The collective released a statement reading: ‘Tim was a friend, mentor and father to the surviving members of the KOS collective.’
The current members of K.O.S., including Angel Abreu, Jorge Abreu, Robert Branch, Ala Ebtekar, Ricardo Nelson Savinon, Noe Sosa and Logan Swedick, have announced plans to continue working together.
2 January 2018
