Category: people

“As a state-appointed poet laureate, Jang Jin Sung reached the pinnacle of elite life in North Korea. He spent his days writing epic poems for dictator Kim Jong Il – and overseeing inter-Korean espionage. … In 2004, having committed a minor transgression deemed treasonous by the state, he fled, becoming one of North Korea’s highest-ranking defectors.”

“A German museum has put on display a copy of Vincent van Gogh’s ear that was grown using some of the Dutch artist’s genetic material. The 19-century painter is said to have cut off his own left ear during a psychotic episode in 1888.”

While little is known about Petro Poroshenko’s personal interest in contemporary art, he has certainly caught the attention of the country’s artists.

It was much less grandiose and more affectionate than it looks in a headline – or, for that matter, than journalist Dawn Reiss had expected when she received a list of “communication courtesy” instructions prior to interviewing Dr. Angelou.

“Though there are things people in the entertainment business do miss about Finke — her ability to uncover stories the industry doesn’t want broken; her in-depth box office analysis; her unique, roaring writer’s voice; and the fact that her mere existence kept her competitors on their toes — the list of what they don’t miss is longer.”

“The distributor, United Artists, never offered an explanation. Mr. Greenlee said that several theater owners had told him they were contacted by men who identified themselves as F.B.I. agents and ordered them to stop showing the film.”

A new biography: “He might have been one of the greatest artists who ever lived, but he was still a man who had to live among fellow mortals, eat and drink, buy clothes, pay his rent.”

“A prestigious group of curators and art historians have written to the gallery questioning why Abramović’s latest performance piece – about which she has repeatedly emphasised the importance of “nothing” – fails to acknowledge the influence of another contemporary artist who has also made ‘nothing’ central to her work.”

“The 74-year-old, who has leukaemia and emphysema, has written of having ‘lungs of dust’ in his most recent work, Sentenced To Life.” He told BBC Radio 4, “But the trick is not to overdo it. As my friend PJ O’Rourke told me, ‘you’re going to have to soft pedal this death door stuff, Clive, because people are going to get impatient.'”

From a 1986 interview with Terry Gross (in which she sings a mean hymn or two herself): “I thought of myself as a giant ear which could just absorb all sound, and I would go into a room and just eat up the sound. … I would listen to the accents, and I still love the way human beings sound. There is no human voice which is unbeautiful to me.” (audio)