Curator Diego Cortez, Who Helped Launch Basquiat to Fame, Is Dead

Diego Cortez, a curator who stood at the center of Downtown New York’s vibrant art scene during the 1980s, has died. Patti Astor, who cofounded New York’s Fun Gallery, posted news of Cortez’s death on Facebook, writing, “Another one of the great art warriors is gone.”
Cortez is credited with having helped define an anti-establishment sensibility that pervaded art of the era in the city. Much of this is thanks to his 1981 show “New York/New Wave,” which a