Struck by brain cancer at the beginning of the year, he went through surgery in March and then intensive radiation therapy. Without success. When I spoke to him for the last time (three weeks before his death) he was perfectly clear-minded, just upset to be forced to go at a time when there were so many urgent (and fascinating) things left to do.

His lifelong companion, Isabel Díaz Fabela, continues the fight for the recognition of the ever-controversial Vlady's work. For now, with the help of her nephew, Carlos, she is tackling the huge task of inventorying the thousands of paintings, notebooks, and engravings left in the Cuernavaca studio in order to send them to the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) in accordance with Vlady's will, which was made public in May 2004.

Our essay on Vlady, Vlady : de la revolución al renacimiento, will be published in Spanish next December by the Mexican publisher Siglo XXI. It will contain a foreword by the French art historian Serge Fauchereau and contributions by François Maspero, Ernest Neizvestny, Carlos Monsivais, Régis Debray, Michel Lequenne, and others. We are still looking for English- and French-language publishers. A comprehensive retrospective of Vlady's work will take place in April 2006 at the Museum del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

His friends speak out…

Media speak out…

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