Curiously, when he was executed by the Nigerian government, Ken Saro-Wiwa left US$10,500,000 (ten million five hundred thousand United States dollars) in a frozen bank account. We have decided to seek for the assistance of a reliable foreign partner into whose account the fund will be transferred for our own use. If you’ll allow us to transfer these funds through one of your bank accounts in the U.S., we’ll compensate you with 25% of the total sum. I hope we can form a mutually beneficial business relationship.
Well, if you believe certain conspiracy theorists, Lennon was assassinated by powers that considered him a threat, but I don’t believe those loons and neither should you.
Even if you were living in a crazy alternate universe where musicians aren’t artists, Lennon was an artist. He was going to art school when he met Paul, and he drew and painted enough for their to be shows of his work (in the 70s and post-humously).
I thought he was quite good too.
By that standard, you could add Bob Marley to the list.
Feb. 14, 1989 to 1998 isn’t quite “the better part of two decades.”
UnuMondo
Gerard Lebovici, a French film producer and publisher, was murdered by unknown assailants in 1984. He had republished the autobiography of the notorious criminal Jacques Mesrine and some thought the French government decided to get rid of him because of this. I’m not sure whether a film producer qualifies as an artist or not.
Wonderful ** Tracer **. 
Now my keyboard and monitor has soda stains.
Didn’t Bob Marley die of cancer? Or are you asserting that it was all the marijuana smoke that caused the cancer, which would be an effect of the Rastafarian religion’s emphasis on smoking dope, said religion being composed of followers of Ras Tafari, aka, Haile Selassie, the “Conquering Lion” Emperor of Ethiopia from 1934-1970?
I suppose if one wanted to go out on a verrrrry shaky limb, one could assert that Marley was “killed by political influence.” I.e., assassinated.
(Note: I’m recalling some of this data from long, long ago in a time zone far, far away, and some of it may not be accurate. Such as “Bob Marley died of cancer.”)
I can sell you some penis enlargement pills, too, if you’re interested.
(Drat. That was supposed to be in response to DreadCthulhu’s acknowledgement of my infallable Spamming campaign. Okay, then – who’d like this Niemann-Marcus cookie recipe I paid $200 for?)
The reggae superstar that is usually mentioned as an assassination candiate is not Bob Marley (died of cancer), but Peter Tosh (shot in his home interrupting burglars)
Not to mention he has two published books of writings and poetry (In My Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works). Possibly more that I’m not aware of; so he counts as an author as well.
Internet accounts vary, re. the fate of the architect of the Taj Mahal. One states that he was ordered killed by Shah Jahan, to prevent his building any more-beautiful structures; another, that he be blinded and his (drawing) hand cut off. Either way, it was the end of a brilliant career…
The architect of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow was ordered blinded by Ivan the Terrible, for the same reason.
A Google search for “artist killed by the Nazis” turned up 26,100 hits. Granted, many/most of these refer to the statements and works by artists about WWII/the Holocaust, but still… some artists (mostly Jewish and/or left-wing) specifically derided for their “degenerate art” were killed.
A search for “writer killed by the Nazis” turned up 57,200 hits. “Musician…”, 7,220 hits.
Independent-minded, religious, and oppositional artists didn’t fare well under Stalinist terror, either.
I know nothing of the mid-20th C. artistic/intellectual scene in Cambodia, but I imagine that relatively few survived Pol Pot’s reign of terror (Year Zero) liquidation of the urban and educated populaces.
(Sheesh, what a depressing topic!)
This goes way back, but supposedly the Roman emperor Hadrian had the architect of the Temple of Venus and Rome, Apollodorus of Damascus, executed because he made a wise crack about the temple once it was finished. Apollodorus designed the temple to Hadrian’s specifications, and he made the mistake of pointing out that the seated statues of Venus or Dea Roma would bump his or her head on the ceiling if they were to stand up. I guess Hadrian wasn’t amused.
Hitler was the target of assassination a few times. He was also a career painter before he got into politics.
You’re forgetting that Bob was the target of an assasination in 1975 for supporting the reelection of the Prime Minister of Jamaica.
Wassamatter with youse guys? Ain’t you never heard of the riveting work by Alex Constantine, The Covert War Against Rock: What You Don’t Know About the Deaths of Jim Morrison, Tupac Shakur, Michael Hutchence, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Phil Ochs, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh?
Didn’t the French painter Jacques-Louis David have some of his old rivals killed after he came into power during the French Revolution? I know he was involved in the Reign of Terror and all that, and was responsible for at least some people dying . . . it seems to me that some of his victims were artists he didn’t like. Either that, or some of his victims were artists with whom he was supposedly friends, but whom he turned on for political reasons. I Googled around for a little bit, but failed to come up with any real good information. However, if my memory is correct, David was an artist who was at least responsible for the deaths of other artists. If that doesn’t make him an assassin, then he is at least responsible for the assassinations.
–Mephisto, not an art historian.
“less reliable than Kenneth Anger” isn’t something to be wrusted in a book, for reasons that many of us on this board can discuss…