Ernest Trova | 'Falling Man' artist, 82

Ernest Trova, 82, an acclaimed St. Louis artist best known for his "Falling Man" series of works about man at his most imperfect, died Sunday at his home in Richmond Heights, Mo., of congestive heart failure.

Mr. Trova became prominent in the 1960s with his "Falling Man" paintings, prints, and sculpture. The armless human figure, a Chicago Tribune critic wrote in 1978, "is simple but not simple-minded. It can be radically transported and transformed while retaining its essential character - the character of an anonymous 20th century man alone in his environment."

A one-person exhibition of his paintings inaugurated the Pace Gallery in New York in 1963, where Mr. Trova continued to exhibit for more than 20 years. - AP