People

Based on a study of Leonardo’s portraits (including Salvator Mundi), a research opthalmologist argues that the artist had a rare form on strabismus, “a binocular vision disorder characterized by the partial or complete inability to maintain eye alignment on a fixed object.”

“A leading figure in the history of Chinese art, Professor Fong taught for 40 years at Princeton University, where in the 1950s he established the nation’s first doctoral degree program in Chinese art and archaeology. Beginning in the early 1970s he was a driving force behind the Met’s ambitious effort to expand its collection of Asian art, including masterworks from China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and India, and add space in which to display it.”

The Trump Organization has filed a lawsuit seeking $90,000 in unpaid common charges and fees from a Trump Tower resident– six months after he died in a fire that engulfed his Fifth Avenue apartment. Trump Tower did not have sprinkler system that might have put out the blaze

In a span just shy of two decades, they gave away more than $1.3 billion to charity — money spent on expansions at the Curtis Institute of Music and Philadelphia Museum of Art, to substantially fund the creation of the Museum of the American Revolution, for college scholarships to students in rural Pennsylvania, to fund hospitals, literacy programs, and nature preserves, and on and on. Wednesday’s three-hour-plus tribute offered seemingly no end of testimony to their generosity, a montage of institutions transformed and individual lives changed.

Eve Ewing has had quite the year, with a book of poetry, a play co-authored with Gwendolyn Brooks, and then a new work of sociology coming out this week. But then there’s Marvel. “In August, Dr. Ewing caused minor pandemonium on the internet when she announced that she had been hired to write Ironheart, the first solo title featuring its character Riri Williams, black girl genius from Chicago.”

The British actor who won the Emmy, Grammy and Tony as Celie in the Broadway revival of A Color Purple is about to be on the big screen in two different movies. “I am not aiming for [the Oscar]. … I’m aiming to do the work well, and if by chance that comes in my direction, I will be welcoming it with open arms.”

Yeun, who played Glenn on The Walking Dead and is starring in a new Korean film called Burning (based on a short story by Haruki Murakami), says that he hopes and believes there truly will be a sea change for Asian American actors. “We live in this era that, while Joy Luck Club came out that one time, we got so many things coming up now. We got talent now. We got people everywhere. Is it still going to take some time? Yeah.”

She entered a field dominated by men like John Le Carré and Ian Fleming, and found fertile ground in the rivalries among Britain’s intelligence services. Getting to know actual WWII spies changed her writing, her life, and the genre.

She was a widely admired translator of German literature in particular, introducing works by Sebald, Zweig, and Freud as well as Kafka to anglophone readers. But she’s best known for her translations of children’s books from German and French, especially the Asterix series of comics, whose puns she cleverly rendered in English.

“[She] was the best-known voice coach of her generation, though the term vastly underrates what she did and her attitude towards it.” In three books and 45 years at the Royal Shakespeare Company (along with extensive work elsewhere), she transformed the way that voice work for actors was taught, and even conceived.

Last October, Pyotr Pavlensky was arrested for starting a fire at the entrance to the Bank of France building in Paris — in what he calls an artwork titled Lighting. He was only released from pretrial detention last month, but prosecutors are demanding that he be returned to jail until trial (to begin in January) and are calling for a ten-year sentence. Meanwhile, FEMEN members supporting Pavlensky have been demonstrating outside the courthouse, their mouths taped shut and messages scrawled in black across their bare breasts.

The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize “was established in 1994 through the will of actress Lillian Gish to honor individuals who have, according to the website for the prize, ‘made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.'” The Gish Prize Trust selected Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, for his work both as a conductor and in music education via the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles project.

At the point in his career — in his 50s, maybe, or early 60s — at which anyone might reasonably expect his voice to have run its course, Domingo politely but firmly declined to step down. And with that, the curtain gradually went up on one of the most astonishing second acts the opera world has ever known.

His job titles belie his importance at the company; Mr. Hubay did far more than oversee ticket sales. He became something of an expert on opera and opera singers, so much so that he would be asked to judge singing and scholarship competitions. He also served on the boards of numerous musical organizations, including the Glimmerglass Opera, the Oratorio Society of New York and the Marilyn Horne Foundation.

“In 1960, Kosugi cofounded Group Ongaku, a Tokyo-based collective widely considered the first improvisational music ensemble formed in both the country and the world. … After allying himself with the Fluxus movement and participating in Happenings, he toured in a Volkswagen van from Rotterdam to the Taj Mahal as part of the Taj Mahal Travelers. With the group, he sketched out hallucinogenic, highly processed jams with an electric violin, radio oscillators, and his voice. … Between 1995 and 2011, Kosugi was the musical director for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.”

“Although her appointment in May 2017 by Emmanuel Macron had been welcomed enthusiastically, the fact that she was replaced came as no surprise. [Françoise] Nyssen — whose publishing house, Actes Sud, is one of France’s most successful — had been facing accusations of conflict of interest, in addition to a simmering scandal concerning building permits for which she’s under investigation. … [Franck] Riester, the new minister of culture, is a center-right politician whose primary experience has been in the broadcasting sector.”

While best known as a pioneer in the technology industry since the mid-1970s, Allen developed a reputation as a ferocious art collector, building a highly regarded collection that was notoriously guarded—for many years, he demanded that his employees keep quiet about his holdings. He made his first appearance on the annual ARTnews “Top 200 Collectors” in 1997, and has been listed in each edition since 1999.

“[Dr. Alexander] Neumeister admitted in June to stealing roughly $87,000 while working for New York University, according to court records. … [A federal judge ruled that] must play piano for at least an hour, twice a week at facilities for the elderly in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and Bridgeport for the next three years.”

“They don’t love the music, because they told me this is haram (forbidden). [They said] you work with the U.S.A … this is [like the] Army,” recounted Tariq Abdul Razzac. The militants were armed, and as Razzac attempted to flee, they shot at him. His cello, strapped to his back, absorbed the shots. The bullets pierced through its hard case and passed through the cello — causing extreme damage and rendering it practically useless.

This is how it all began: “Ms. Hall was enjoying moderate success as a singer and songwriter when, developing an idea first hatched during a dinner party conversation, she, Peter Masterson and Larry L. King created Best Little Whorehouse, a comedy based on an article Mr. King had written in 1974 for Playboy. It concerned the moralistic efforts to close down a real-life Texas brothel known as the Chicken Ranch (because some customers paid in chickens) that had operated for years.”

Almeida had a signature technique of inserting herself into her art, whether that was video, photography, performance art or other media. “‘I turn myself into a drawing,’ she said by way of describing her art. ‘My body as a drawing, myself as my own work.'”

It’s been a hard year for the director, who shot to fame as the creator of Amazon’s Transparent, and whose star – Jeffrey Tambor – was fired last year, halting production on the series. But as Soloway and their sister Faith work on a musical version of Transparent, things have gotten back into gear: “So good. … Oh my God, that’s amazing. I’m feeling it! You guys did that so fast! Guys, it’s all happening.”

There were few details on how the company will depict the story of Messi, and his rise from a boy from Rosario, Argentina, who overcame a growth-hormone deficiency to a star at Spain’s F.C. Barcelona — and perhaps the best player in soccer history.

“[She] was widely considered one of Portugal’s most significant postwar artists, and … earned international recognition starting in the 1970s for her striking black-and-white images, which often portrayed impossible acts — the artist with pen making lines midair, or erasing herself with blue brushstrokes — to challenge the limitations of media.”

Ordinarily, the fact that a celebrated pop star would offer her thoughts on the political scene wouldn’t attract all that much attention. What is different in Swift’s case is that, at least until now, she has scrupulously avoided partisan politicking, to the point where she has been denounced for her “political silence.” In an Instagram post, she explained that recent events had led her to become more open about her political beliefs, and I’m sure that’s true. More interesting to me—I confess I’m not an expert on Swift’s inner life—is what her intervention tells us about the larger cultural and political landscape.

“I am exacting, and I push. If someone has the talent they have the RIGHT to be temperamental. They complained about Bette Midler when she was doing Dolly, but she wouldn’t be exciting if she wasn’t temperamental. It’s only the ones who don’t have the talent and are temperamental who make you say, ‘Just get out of here!'”

He made a number of well-regarded animated shorts (including one Oscar winner) and one feature film (The Adventures of Mark Twain), but the project that really made his career was the California Raisins, four Motown-singin’ dried grapes whose television commercials for the California Raisin Advisory Board in the 1980s’ and ’90s became huge pop-culture hits. (Michael Jackson even called Vinton to ask if he could be a raisin.)

The Globe is announcing today that it has finally replaced Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee, who left for the Post nearly a year ago. The Globe’s new critic is Murray Whyte, currently at The Star of Toronto, whose arrival in Boston, I’m told, was delayed because of immigration issues.

“Richard Meier’s six-month leave of absence from the firm he founded, which began after five women came forward in March to accuse him of sexual misconduct, has become more permanent. Richard Meier & Partners Architects announced today that its founder would ‘step back from day-to-day activities’ at the firm.”