John Outterbridge. Photo: DISTINCT via Facebook.
The artist John Outterbridge has died in Los Angeles. He was 87. His passing was announced by his daughter, Tami Outterbridge, and shared by Tilton Gallery, which represented Outterbridge since 2006. No cause of death was given.
Since the 1960s, Outterbridge was a pioneering figure in LA, serving for decades as the director of the Watts Towers Arts Center and working as a community activist alongside artists such as Noah Purifoy.
In the 1990s, he left Watts Towers to focus on his own practice, which often took the form of assemblages and sculptures that fused the aesthetics of folk art with social commentary on Black American life. He created doll-like figures from discarded objects and found materials, fabrics and scrap metals, wood and old clothes.