Category: people

If you’re somehow not familiar with the name, Bob Ross is probably America’s most famous painter. With his distinctive hair, gentle voice, and signature expressions like “happy little trees,” he’s an enduring icon. Even 25 years after his death, he’s popular not only with viewers who remember him fondly, but also with kids who weren’t even born when his show was originally on the air. – The Atlantic

While a student in Moscow in the late ’60s, he became passionately interested in William Blake, going on to translate his complete works into Russian and write the first Russian-language biography of Blake. The great English mystic became the dominant force in Smirnov’s music as well, with more than 50 of his compositions being based on or inspired by Blake. – The Guardian

Doug Shipman said he informed the Woodruff in February of his intentions to leave after three years of leading the organization. The Woodruff Arts Center is Atlanta’s foundational arts organization, overseeing the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Alliance Theatre. It is the third-largest arts center in the United States. Shipman said he wants to be more directly involved in addressing injustices of the past and present. “I do not know exactly what pathway I will take, and I will need friends to help me navigate the road ahead,” he said. – ArtsATL

Over the last half-century, Warhol has been merchandised into the trite, plastic banality he supposedly critiqued, but as Blake Gopnik reminds us, the artist is much harsher, and more cynical, than we sometimes credit. – The New Republic

The actor, who died yesterday, went up against an entrenched system, and won. Her successful 1943 lawsuit against Warner Bros. “destroyed the indentured servitude that was the studio system, and helped pave the way for the modern age of movie stars as independent mini-moguls, with control of their own artistic and financial fortunes.” – The Atlantic

Rosenfeld, “through the simple act of creating a line on a street in Chile, mounted an important artistic and political intervention against an oppressive government.” – ARTNews

What does she think of how the British government is doing? What’s she doing during the pandemic? How will the arts recover? And so much more (including the fact that yes, of course she could play Queen Elizabeth II). – The Observer (UK)

De Havilland died at her home in Paris. “The striking brunette won best actress Oscars for The Heiress and To Each His Own in the late 1940s, and was Oscar-nominated for Gone With the Wind, The Snake Pit and Hold Back the Dawn.”- Variety

Philbin hosted everything from Regis and Kathie to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but was far more than that. “He also wrote five books, appeared in movies, made records as a singer, gave concerts and was a one-man industry of spinoffs, from shirts and ties to medical advice and computer games.” – The New York Times

“Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish Iranian exile and journalist who became the voice of those incarcerated on Manus Island” — an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea where Australia maintains a camp for refugees who try to reach the country by sea — “has had his refugee status formally recognised by New Zealand, and granted a visa to live there.” – The Guardian