Ragland Tolk Watkins (Rags): Curator, Art Dealer, Interior Decorator Passes

Ragland Watkins died March 20, 2026 in New York City. He was 77 years old. He is survived by his sisters Isabel Watkins Rubio and Georgia Watkins Brennan and brother, Stephen Radl. He was predeceased by his partner, artist John Lander (1951-1992).

Rags lived in New York City's West Village for nearly 50 years and was at the epicenter of an emerging art movement in the 1970s-1980's. Later in life, he became a fixture at the Washington Square Small Dog Park and was known as the unofficial Mayor of the Small Dog Run.

Rags was a welcoming presence to everyone making sure all felt included. He and his wire-haired dachshunds, Henry, and then Sally Lou, (named after his dear cousin Sally Johnson) made many friends there, many of whom closed ranks around him with love and comfort at the end of his life.

Rags worked in New York's contemporary art world most prominently as Associate Director at the nonprofit New York gallery Artists Space. He worked with its then Director, Helene Winer, who later founded the influential art gallery Metro Pictures, which launched the careers of artists such as Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Jack Goldstein, Richard Prince and many others.

During Rags' tenure at Artists Space, it presented the influential Pictures exhibition (September 24-October 29,1977), later examined in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984 (April 29-August 2, 2009). After leaving Artists Space Rags worked at several commercial galleries specializing in contemporary art and in 1993 started his own Design and Decoration firm. Rags was also an executor of the estate of Museum of Modern Art's Senior Curator and dear friend Kynaston McShine (1935-2018).

He worked with McShine for a number of years to organize his papers now housed at MOMA, and after McShine's death, to settle his estate.

Rags received a B.A. in art history from Lake Forest College, (1972) and an M.A. in Arts Management from New York University (1982). He moved to New York City in 1976 after living in Chicago, Boston and Cincinnati, where he worked at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center.

Rags' father, William Ragland (Rags) Watkins III (1923-2003) was a well-known architect in McComb and his mother Margaret "Peggy" Tolk-Watkins (1921-1973) was a painter, poet, night club entrepreneur, and lesbian who later became well known in the San Francisco area art and music worlds. His parents both attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina known for its interdisciplinary approach and focus on the arts. There they became friends with artist Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) and her husband architect Albert Lanier (1927-2008) who remained lifelong friends.

Rags' parents moved from North Carolina to California's Bay Area in 1947 and urged their friends Ruth Asawa and Albert Lanier to do the same to avoid anti-Japanese laws in the wake of World War II. Rags was born in San Francisco. His parents separated when Rags was a toddler and his father returned to McComb and started his own successful architecture firm. When he was 6, Rags moved to Mississippi to live with his father, who later remarried Rags' second mother, Carlota Isabel Ortiz Monasterio and had two daughters, Isabel and Georgia. It was here that he was given the name "Little Rags" so as not to confuse father and son. That name held on for longer than we are sure Rags appreciated.

Rags spent summers with his mother in the Bay Area until he was 12, and later visited when he turned 19. His younger brother, Stephen Radl, was raised by Peggy's sister Helen Tolk Radl.

Rags' mother Peggy Tolk-Watkins was a famous Bay Area artist, club entrepreneur and lesbian. She and Big Rags created The Tin Angel, a famous lesbian bar in Sausalito and later, own her own, Peggy opened The Fallen Angel on the Embarcadero. The Tin Angel launched the career of Birmingham born blues singer Odetta, who from time to time, babysat Rags. Odetta performed regularly at The Tin Angel and her first album The Tin Angel (1954) was recorded there. Johnny Mathis sang at the Tin early in his career and an early exhibit of dear friend Artist Ruth Asawa was held there, as well. Rags had vivid memories of his mother and her life in the Bay Area.

As a child, Rags was a regular visitor to the home of Ruth Asawa and Albert Lanier. He maintained lifelong friendships with the Lanier-Asawa children, Xavier, Aiko, Hudson, Adam, Laurie and Paul, with whom he grew up in San Francisco. And in McComb, with his first set of "sisters", the McCosker girls (Fran Holloway, Marge Smith, and Erin Diefendorf). As children, they each adopted movie star names - Tony Curtis (Rags), Elizabeth Taylor (Fran), Jane Russell (Marge), and Debbie Reynolds (Erin) and referred to each other by these names their entire lives. They loved to play Monopoly and everyone cheated a little bit.

In 1981, Rags met John Lander, the first man he lived with openly. Together, Rags and John participated in ACT UP events, including a kiss-in at Stonewall Inn, and found solidarity in their community.

As the epidemic raged, Rags lost countless friends, including John. He himself was eventually diagnosed with HIV. As devastating as AIDS was, Rags credits it with unifying the queer community, humanizing queer folks to the rest of society, and helping him come out.

Rags loved the South and returned to Magnolia later in life with his dear friend James Middleton. They bought Sissy Leggett's 1923 center-hall bungalow built from the heartwood of local pine trees. Rags and James worked together for several years restoring the home; but in 2018, they amicably parted ways, with James staying in Mississippi, and Rags returning to New York.

Rags really was a miracle - surviving about 40 years living with HIV, serious heart issues, diabetes, and new health issues, the last of which was a mass in his brain. But Rags was not defined by his illnesses. He lived a full life travelling to Japan, Spain, Turkey, Berlin, Mexico, the UK, Italy, Colombia, and countless other places. His last journey was just this year to Egypt, which he enjoyed, but commented on how beige everything was there - including the food.

He was an amazing big brother and his sisters simply adored him. The lessons, the observations, inspirations he passed along keep him alive in them everyday.

Aside from his sisters and brother, Rags leaves behind his brother-in-law, Matt Brennan, dear nephew Benjamin Ragland Jackson (Tori) and their son Thomas, nieces Sofia Isabel Rubio and Libby and Paisley Brennan, Denman Cousins Melissa Johnson, Joanna Mason (Chip), and Elizabeth Woodall (Bennie); Suzanne Radl McDonnell (John), and their daughter Kiki. Countless friends from across his lifespan mourn his death with us.

Further information available at: www.theoutwordsarchive.org/interview/ragland-watkins www.sausalitohistoricalsociety.com/ragland-tolk-watkins-interview www.sausalitohistoricalsociety.com/2022-columns/2022/12/22/peggy-and-the-tin-angel

Stanford University, Manuscripts Division: Peggy Tolk-Watkins was an artist and poet who had attended Black Mountain College, where she met and later married Albert Lanier's friend from Georgia, Ragland "Rags" Watkins. The couple moved to San Francisco (although they soon separated) and were instrumental in convincing Albert and Ruth to move there. Peggy operated the Tin Angel, a jazz club owned by Sally Stanford which was located first in Sausalito and later on the Embarcadero. One of Ruth's first exhibitions was at the Tin Angel with Jean Varda. Fantasy Records, whose Max and Sol Weiss temporarily owned the club, recorded some live albums there, and Peggy's paintings were used on some LP covers (she also modeled for the cover of a comedy album). Later she ran Stanford's Fallen Angel club, but eventually left the entertainment world to teach in Richmond and pursue art more vigorously. Unfortunately, as with so many creative people, her health and personal affairs were victims of her zest for life, and she passed away in 1973 at the age of 51.