Ehlert created 38 books for young children as an author and illustrator. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which she illustrated with her signature collages, has sold more than 12 million copies since its publication. She was a Caldecott winner for the 1997 board book Color Zoo. “Her workday, she said, was a never-ending series of paper cuts.” – The New York Times
People
Raimund Hoghe, Who Created Dances For His Own Nonnormative Body, Dead At 72
Five feet tall and born with a curved spine, he was a young journalist interviewing Pina Bausch when she asked him to work with her; after a decade, he began making pieces of his own. His solo work, whether for himself or colleagues, tended toward the political; his dances for larger ensembles mixed contemporary ballet with butoh and set it to the likes of Liza Minnelli and Maria Callas. – The New York Times
Liam Scarlett’s Death Did Not Happen The Way Everyone Presumed It Did
The British choreographer, aged 35, died in April, one day after the Royal Danish Ballet announced it was cancelling its staging of his Frankenstein over #MeToo allegations against him; similar accusations led to his firing from London’s Royal Ballet in 2020. The widespread assumption was that Scarlett committed suicide after the release of the news from Copenhagen; in fact, he had been admitted to a hospital, unconscious, four days earlier. – The Guardian
Chi Modu, Photographer Who Shaped Rap’s Visual Identity, 5
“In the early and mid-1990s, working primarily for The Source magazine, at the time the definitive digest of hip-hop’s commercial and creative ascendance, Mr. Modu was the go-to photographer. An empathetic documentarian with a talent for capturing easeful moments in often extraordinary circumstances, he helped set the visual template for dozens of hip-hop stars. The Source was minting a new generation of superheroes, and Mr. Modu was capturing them as they took flight.” – The New York Times
Call My Agent’s Liliane Rovere Explains How Her Life Created Her Character
Rovère’s character “Arlette has struck a chord as everyone’s ideal disreputable aunt with a repertoire of outrageous stories that she just might tell if the burgundy is flowing. She is the sly, sharp-tongued doyenne of top Paris talent agency ASK, who knows where the bodies are buried, and just when to dig them up.” But her character is more than a little bit made of the 88-year-old actress: “The writers decanted a lot of Rovère into the character – her love of jazz and movies, her partiality to the odd joint, her romance with [Chet] Baker.” – The Observer (UK)
Jerome Hellman, Producer Of Midnight Cowboy And Coming Home, 92
With barriers at every turn, from an anxious director who didn’t want to work with the leading actors to disastrous early scripts, no one expected Midnight Cowboy to get completed – or be a hit. Jerome Hellman “helped steer the project through crisis after crisis, fudging on cost estimates, fighting with recalcitrant collaborators and surreptitiously shooting scenes on the streets of Manhattan to produce a bold, barrier-breaking movie that in 1970 became the first and only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.” – Washington Post
Gavin MacLeod, Star Of The Mary Tyler Moore Show And The Love Boat, 90
MacLeod had been a working, but struggling, actor for many years when he read for The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. He had been asked to audition for the role of Lou Grant – the role that eventually went to Ed Asner – but asked to read for Murray instead. “As Murray, the balding, humble head writer and Mary’s office best friend, Mr. MacLeod was given to firing zingers at the show’s other regulars, especially the pompously vain anchorman, Ted Baxter (Ted Knight, a longtime friend of Mr. MacLeod’s). He saw Murray as an Everyman character.” Then came The Love Boat. – The New York Times
Faye Schulman, Who Fought The Nazis With A Rifle And A Camera, 101
Her rifle was important during the war; her camera became more important after: “As one of the only known Jewish partisan photographers, Mrs. Schulman, thanks to her own graphic record-keeping, debunked the common narrative that most Eastern European Jews had gone quietly to their deaths.” – The New York Times
Alix Dobkin, Who Wrote Songs Of Liberation, 80
Dobkin was an early idol in the women-loving-women movement. “Long before K.D. Lang transformed herself from a country artist into an androgyne pop idol and sex symbol, smoldering in a man’s suit on the cover of Vanity Fair being mock-shaved by the supermodel Cindy Crawford; long before Melissa Etheridge sold millions of copies of her 1993 album, Yes I Am, and in so doing came out as a gay rock star; and long before the singer-songwriter Jill Sobule’s ‘I Kissed a Girl’ hit the Billboard charts, the folk singer Alix Dobkin chopped her hair off, formed a band and recorded Lavender Jane Loves Women.” – The New York Times
Charles Larson, Who Established Study Of African Literature In U.S. Academia, Dead At 83
“As a professor at American University in Washington, where he joined the faculty in 1970, Dr. Larson taught some of the first classes offered to U.S. students on African writers. At a time when the literary canon consisted almost entirely of works by British and American authors, he helped secure a place in American academia for writers including [Chinua] Achebe and Wole Soyinka.” – The Washington Post
‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ Author Eric Carle Dead At 91
“Over the course of his career, Carle illustrated more than 70 books for kids. He didn’t get started on that path until he was nearly 40, but he found great inspiration in … insects. Spiders, lady bugs, crickets and of course, that famous caterpillar, all as colorful and friendly as Carle himself.” – NPR
Carla Fracci, One of 20th Century’s Greatest Ballerinas, Dead At 84
Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, where she was trained and first became famous, “recalled the ‘fairytale rise’ of the daughter of a tram driver who, through ‘talent, obstinance and work became the most famous ballerina in the world, has inspired generations of young people, and not just in the world of dance.'” – Yahoo! (AP)
Performance Artist And Director Robbie McCauley Dead At 78
“[Her] résumé included reimagining classic American plays through diverse casting and a stint in the ensemble of Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking 1976 Broadway show, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. But she was best known for shows she wrote and performed at venues like the Kitchen in Manhattan and Franklin Furnace in Brooklyn, in which she used her family and personal stories to confront universal issues.” – The New York Times
Anna Halprin, Pioneer Of Postmodern Dance, Dead At 100
“Before Halprin, American dance was cast in [Martha] Graham’s regal mold, presented formally onstage, and performed by highly trained bodies that acted out the choreographer’s vision in a rarefied movement language. Halprin’s rebellion was to declare that any movement, performed with presence and intention, could be a dance, and anybody could be a dancer.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Paulo Mendes Da Rocha, Leading Brazilian Architect And Pritzker Prize Winner, Dead At 92
“He was globally recognised as a major architect of the 20th century, despite rarely building outside his native Brazil. … Because he worked with large expanses of raw concrete – a cheap and abundant material in his home country – his name was often linked with Brazilian brutalism. But it was a label Mendes da Rocha rejected.” – Dezeen
When Artists Marry Other Artists
Artists partnered with other artists — coupled, married or otherwise entangled — is as old as art itself. Did two artists, in their attraction to one another, create something that they might otherwise have not? There is a particular kind of glory and fame to be earned from such unions. – The New York Times
Kathleen Andrews, The Woman Who Helped Bring Us Ziggy, Cathy, And Doonesbury, 84
Kathy Andrews and her husband Jim, “with his best friend, John P. McMeel, concocted a newspaper syndication company from the basement of the Andrewses’ rented ranch house. Ms. Andrews, who had a master’s degree in mathematics, kept the books. They called it Universal Press Syndicate because, Mr. Trudeau said, ‘it sounded bland and boring and like it had been around for a hundred years.'” – The New York Times
Librarian Ruth Freitag, Who Helped Isaac Asimov And Carl Sagan With Research, 96
Freitag, “a reference librarian at the Library of Congress for nearly a half-century, was unknown to the general public. But she was, in more ways than one, a librarian to the stars. Known for her encyclopedic knowledge of resources in science and technology, Ms. Freitag was sought out by the leading interpreters of the galaxy. She developed a particular expertise in astronomy early in her career.” – The New York Times
Alix Dobkin, ‘Head Lesbian’ And First Star Of Womyn’s Music, Dead At 80
“In the early 1970s, long before the rise of lesbian or gay-friendly acts such as K.D. Lang, Melissa Etheridge, Ani DiFranco and the Indigo Girls, Ms. Dobkin was writing and recording songs that celebrated lesbian life. … [She made] music history in 1973 when she released Lavender Jane Loves Women, generally considered the first full-length album by, for and about lesbians.” Dobkin went on to spend decades performing on the lesbian coffeehouse-bookstore-music festival circuit, becoming such an institution that her fans called her “the Head Lesbian.” – The Washington Post
The Enduring Influence Of Midori
What might sound like general pep-talk fodder for the averagely scheduled person is actually just pragmatic paraphrase for Midori, whose prodigious musical talent was merely the first movement in a career that has extended into music education, community outreach and arts advocacy. – Washington Post
Debora Chase-Hicks, Pioneering Dancer With Ailey And Philadanco, Dead At 63
“[She] was a part of the generation of Black dancers, many trained in classical ballet as children, who were instrumental in bringing top-flight modern dance to international audiences.” Chase-Hicks became a full member of Philadanco at age 17; after seven years there, she spent 11 seasons with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, then returned to Philadanco as rehearsal director, a job she kept for the rest of her life. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Dr. Aaron Stern, Psychiatrist Who Headed Hollywood’s Ratings Board, Dead At 96
From 1971 to 1974, he led the Motion Picture Association of America’s Classification and Rating Administration, which gave films G, PG, R, and X ratings to films as a replacement for the old Hays Code of censorship. In 1981, longtime MPAA head Jack Valenti said that he had “made a mistake of putting a psychiatrist in charge.” – The New York Times
Art Gensler, Who Founded World’s Largest Architectural Firm, Dead At 85
“Over the decades, Gensler’s firm has designed universities, hotels, sports stadia and universities, touching almost every part of the built environment. It has created corporate headquarters for the likes of Facebook, Burberry and Hyundai, and airports from Detroit, Michigan, to Incheon, South Korea. In the process, the company has grown into giant of global architecture, employing thousands of people at offices in 50 world cities.” – CNN
Actor Charles Grodin, 86
“[He] made his mark in both comedy and drama, onstage and on screen and as a writer and director. He often adopted a quirky style that could be simultaneously self-effacing and self-important. He was a master of the cringeworthy moment, when it wasn’t clear if he was being funny, naive or insulting — or a little of all three.” – The Washington Post
Dick Van Dyke Is 95, And He Really Wants To Get Back On Stage
“His last singing gig took place on a Saturday night 15 months ago at the Catalina Jazz Club. He packed the house. They even had to cram in extra tables. … ‘Oh, God, I knew I liked it, but I didn’t know how much I would miss it,’ he says of performing. ‘I really miss getting up in front of an audience.'” – The Washington Post