SAN JUAN—Joel Weinstein, an art critic and chronicler of Puerto Rican art, died of lung cancer at the age of 62 on October 31, Artnet reports. Weinstein was born in Denver, went to school in Oregon, and eventually moved to Texas. He was a graphic designer and food critic as well as an arts writer. Weinstein wrote for the Austin American Statesman (1994–97) and the Dallas Morning News (1997–2000), and published the literary arts magazine Mississippi Mud from the 1970s to 1997. A tireless and often eccentric advocate of the Puerto Rican art scene, Weinstein wrote on the topic in his blog Rotund World.

NEW YORK—Muriel Oxenberg Murphy, the co-founder of the American painting and sculpture department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died two weeks ago of cancer, Artnet reports. Murphy, 82, joined the Met in 1949 and helped establish the department under the guidance of Robert Hale. In the 1970s, she became known for her New York salon, which brought together many important literary and art world figures. She edited the collected writings of the novelist William Gaddis, who was her companion for more than 20 years starting in the '70s, and a collected volume of her writing, Excerpts: from the Unpublished Files of Muriel Oxenberg Murphy, was published in July.

CHICAGO—Artist and curator Don Baum died on October 28 at the age of 86. Baum devoted himself to promoting Chicago's art scene by championing the work of up-and-coming local artists. He was also an artist himself who made assemblages that were often overtly political. He served as exhibitions director at the Hyde Park Art Center from 1956 to 1972, where he showed such artists as Jim Nutt, Roger Brown, and Gladys Nilsson. He taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at Roosevelt University, serving also as chairman of Roosevelt's art department.