In memoriam Robert M. Wilson (1941—2025)

Robert Wilson (Oct. 4, 1941 — July 31, 2025)

We are heartbroken to announce the passing of Robert M. Wilson, artist, theater and opera director, architect, set and lighting designer, visual artist, and founder of The Watermill Center.

Robert Wilson died peacefully today in Water Mill, New York, at the age of 83, after a brief but acute illness.

While facing his diagnosis with clear eyes and determination, he still felt compelled to keep working and creating right up until the very end. His works for the stage, on paper, sculptures and video portraits, as well as The Watermill Center, will endure as Robert Wilson’s artistic legacy.

There will be memorials for Robert Wilson held in the near future in locations that were especially meaningful to him. We will announce those in time.

Once Upon A Time: Christian Dior fashion show in Paris

Robert Wilson designed the scenography and staging for the Dior Women Ready-to-wear Winter 2025-2026 Collection. It was presented live in Paris at the Tuileries Garden on March 4, 2025.

“Maria Grazia asked me to stage the [Dior] fashion show, and we talked about it being loosely based on Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Orlando is a journey that takes us to foreign lands, landscapes of ice and landscapes of fire. I divided this work into five acts. I worked with sound, I worked with light. Light is what creates space. Light is what helps us hear and see. I am not trying to tell a story. It is something that we experience, with the freedom to think and dream.”
— Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson and Maria Grazia Chiuri (Photograph: Laura Sciacovelli)

Robert Wilson’s Scenography for ONCE UPON A TIME - © Christian Dior Couture

“... the most mesmerizing show—or rather, performance—of the international runway season so far.”
— Godfrey Deeny / Fashion Network

Teaser / RW Interview for ONCE UPON A TIME - © Christian Dior Couture

Mary and Victoria: Two Wilson Queens in New York

Tonight, Feb. 27, at NYU’s Skirball Theater, Mary Said What She Said, the stirring monologue, performed by French icon Isabelle Huppert, and produced by the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and EDM Productions, will make its long-awaited New York debut. Additional performances on Feb. 28, Mar. 1 (2x) and 2. For more information and tickets, please click here.

Another queen from Robert Wilson’s theatrical cosmos, Victoria, will make an appearance at Raisonné (16 Crosby Street), in the shape of a version of the “Queen Victoria Café Chair.” For his 1974 play A Letter for Queen Victoria, ten café chairs were made from industrial materials. Now, Wilson and Raisonné present an exclusive edition of ten Queen Victoria Café Chairs, reimagined in polished brass and plated steel.

And what’s more, this spring, Raisonné will publish the book “Robert Wilson Chairs,” a comprehensive volume featuring all of Wilson’s chair designs, including several works never previously exhibited. The book can be pre-ordered from artbook.

Michelangelo and "The Night Before"

The 2025 edition of the “Salone del Mobile.Milano” is partnering with the international lighting exhibition “Euroluce.” Robert Wilson will not only curate and design the opening gala at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan - entitled The Night Before—Objects, Chairs, Opera - but also create a vision of Michelangelo’s sculpture “Pietà Rondanini” in its own dedicated space: the “Spanish Hospital” at Sforzesco Castle. This work, entitled MOTHER, will be accompanied by the sounds of Arvo Pärt’s masterful “Stabat Mater.” - We will publish dates, opening hours and links to the venues on our Calendar as soon as they are released.

https://www.salonemilano.it/en/articles/preview-salone-del-mobile-2025-robert-wilson-lights-michelangelos-pieta-rondanini

Robert Wilson visiting the Pietà Rondanini in Milan.