Category: people

From Olivia de Havilland to Diana Rigg to Ann Reinking; from Kirk Douglas to Sean Connery to Chadwick Boseman; from Elizabeth Wurtzel to Jan Morris to John le Carré; from Vera Lynn to Kenny Rogers to Little Richard; from Terrence McNally to Larry Kramer; from Krzysztof Penderecki to Ennio Morricone; from Julian Bream to Leon Fleisher to Ida Haendel to Ivry Gitlis; from Christo to Luchida Hurtado; and from Sumner Redstone to Alex Trebek. (Click here for a more complete, bulleted list sorted by month.) – BBC

“[He] was something of a cult figure until recently, with his pioneering sculptures of the 1960s mainly known to European curators and historians, who have featured them in major biennials and surveys over the past decade. But a growing fan base has also come to recognize the artist, who … is [now] best known for his Cloud Canyons sculptures, which feature looping organic-looking forms that emit soap bubbles. Medalla labeled these works ‘auto-creative art’.” – ARTnews

Following a Ph.D. in art history at Harvard and five years at the helm of Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts, he came to the Philadelphia Museum (1964-78), where he created new departments for American and 20th-century art and for photography and hired several important curators (notably Anne d’Harnoncourt, who eventually became director herself). In Cleveland (1983-93), he transformed the museum from a respected but staid institution into a regional powerhouse that helped fuel cultural tourism in the then-struggling city. – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Born to a pair of French literature scholars who were later driven to suicide during the Cultural Revolution, Fou went to Warsaw to study at age 19 and two years later won a prize in the Chopin Competition. Not long after, he escaped to western Europe and eventually settled in London, where he taught and maintained an international concert career. – BBC

He clothed the famous — artists, political luminaries, tastemakers and members of the haute bourgeoisie — but he was also a merchant to the masses with an international brand, his name affixed to an outpouring of products, none too exalted or too humble to escape his avid eye. – The New York Times

At age 8, she became George Balanchine’s first student at his School of American Ballet. Later, in Philadelphia in 1961, with a couple of graduates of SAB and a Ford Foundation grant, she founded the Pennsylvania Ballet, the first company in what became the regional dance boom of the 1960s and ’70s. – The Philadelphia Inquirer

“[He] collaborated with Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Garcia and Béla Fleck, and, with mandolinist David Grisman, defined the synthesis of bluegrass, jazz and chamber music known as ‘dawg music.'” As one critic put it, “If you play bluegrass guitar, you have to come to terms with Rice the way portrait photographers have to come to terms with [Richard] Avedon.” – The Washington Post

Rose wrote the 1965 essay “ABC Art,” which helped to define and codify Minimalism. She went on to defy the essay (she loathed its title, something The New York Times noted in its obit), defend the genre of painting, write the textbook American Art Since 1900, and teach, write reviews, produce documentary films, and champion both formalism and individual women artists. – Artforum

She was the driving co-founder of the competition, which succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. “The idea of presenting an international music competition in 1960s Leeds, a gritty industrial city in northern England, seemed risky. But Ms. Waterman, a Leeds native who learned perseverance from her poor Russian immigrant father, believed in the vitality of her hometown and was certain she could draw support for the venture.” – The New York Times

Lopez wrote Arctic Dreams (for which he won the National Book Award) and many other works that deeply synthesized reporting and essay form and science writing. He had recently lost land, housing, and archives to one of Oregon’s dreadful Labor Day fires. “Lopez was still being lauded in his final days, with an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and with the literary organization Sun Valley Writers’ Conference announcing this week that it had awarded him its inaugural Writer in the World Prize, which recognizes and honors a writer whose work expresses a ‘rare combination of literary talent and moral imagination, helping us to better understand the world and our place in it.'” – Oregonian