With the passing of Charles Dee Mitchell, who died on Friday at the age of 74, the Dallas art world has lost one of its leading lights who helped shape the local artistic culture as a critic, curator, collector, patron and general all-around wise man of the arts.

After getting a theater degree from SMU, and a brief period teaching at Greenhill School and living in New York, Mitchell began working in 1972 at a small startup called Half-Price Books , eventually becoming chief buyer. Retiring early, he devoted his considerable talents and resources to the flourishing of the visual arts in Dallas.

For many years, Mitchell had a major voice in representing the North Texas art scene to the broader art world, in sharp, penetrating reviews published in Artforum and Art in America

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