Al Held Dies

American painter Al Held was found dead Wednesday in the swimming pool of his house in the Umbrian countryside of Italy. He was seventy-six, and died of natural causes. Held's highly stylized geometric paintings "took years to make," said artist Judy Pfaff, a former student of Held. "They may look computer-generated, but in fact they started out very naturally and then evolved into a very complex pattern, through changes and additions. Irish Art