Now and then I review books and address
art issues on this blog and more recently on Impakter Magazine where I am
Senior Editor. As the reviews tend to get "lost" in the large number
of posts published here, I've collected them below for your convenience:
Nir Eyal's "Hooked": The Secret to Driving Customer Engagement, Book review of Nir Eyal's best seller and a fount of inspiration and advice for start-ups, published on Impakter Magazine, see here
The Battle for Food: Small Farmers vs. Big Corporations, Who Wins? Book review of Nora McKeon's book "Food Security Governance" (Routledge 2015), a stark examination of how civil society impacts the work of the United Nations , published on Impakter Magazine, see here
Jenny Santi Reveals the Secret to Happiness
How philanthropy works for the givers.
A review on Impakter Magazine, to read click here
How Good is Patrick Modiano, the New Nobel in Literature?
The Nobel jury seems to be able to discover new
writers you've never heard of, coming from countries that have a literature you
have never read, like China, Egypt or Turkey and everytime, it's a real
pleasure to discover something totally new. So when the Nobel this year went to
a Frenchman I had never read - and I do read regularly French literature
- I was totally floored and rushed to buy one of his books. In French, of
course...more here.
Amazing Italy: A Forgotten Museum
Palazzo Abatellis in old
Palermo, restored by famous Italian architect Scarpa, exhibits masterpieces
that are the equal of any in the Louvre...more here.
Misunderstood Art: James Wyeth
In Italy, the best museums are
ignored by tourists, in America,
a fantastic portrait is relegated to a closet. Only now, it's coming out of
obscurity because
suddenly the public realizes that Jamie
Wyeth, the gifted son of Andrew
Wyeth is as great an artist as his father. ...more here.
Can an Artist have a Second Life After Death?
When most of us die, we remain
as a memory for our family and closest friends. For artists, it can be
different...With a bit of luck and help from those who have loved us.
Raymond Spillenger, a 1950s-60s artist belonging to the New York school of Abstract Expressionism, who died a few months ago (in November 2013 at the age of 89) has suddenly come back on the scene...more here.
Raymond Spillenger, a 1950s-60s artist belonging to the New York school of Abstract Expressionism, who died a few months ago (in November 2013 at the age of 89) has suddenly come back on the scene...more here.
Real/Unreal, No Limits to Artists' Imagination
I came across these amazing works of art/installations presented
on Impaker - none of them photo-shopped. They're the real stuff. For
example: A "meat painting" by Victoria Reynolds (steaks like
you've never seen them)...more here
A New Kind of Fiction for the 21st Century: the Serialized Novel
The digital revolution has shaken up
publishing, we all know this. It has levelled the field for self-published
authors, giving them a chance to by-pass traditional publishers and become
best-sellers on their own. What is not always realized is that the way we
consume books has also changed. We tend to skim over content, we have
little patience with wordy descriptions...more here
Why Climate Fiction is Here to Stay
Climate fiction has gone viral
for a very simple reason: it deals with climate change and global warming,
issues that are getting worse every year. We've been used to dire reports from
the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for years but now
we are getting one, equally somber report from the United States, long the
homeland of climate change deniers...more here
Literature vs. Genre Fiction : A Lost Battle in the Digital Age ?
It has always been one category among many, and the poor cousin of big
genre categories such as Romance, Science Fiction or Thrillers, the main wage
earners in the publishing industry...more here
What's in a Pen Name?
What's in a name? People hide behind
pseudonyms and pen names, or what the French so nicely call "nom de
plume", and I've always wondered why…More here
Sex and the American Novel
J.A.Konrath recently fumed about sex:
when his books contain explicit sex scenes, his readers are unhappy and call
him a pervert! Amazing! Although I know America well and am a keen
observer of American mores, I'm still puzzled by the way Americans view sex…more here
How to Start Your Novel with a Splash
The hardest part of writing a novel is... the
beginning! I don't know about you, but for me, it is something I do and redo
and I'm rarely satisfied with it. You know your book has to start with a splash
- that's what literary agents and publishers expect, that's what readers want…more here
Amy Winehouse is Dead at 27, like Janice Joplin
Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home
by the police, yesterday afternoon, 23 July 2011. She was only 27 - just
like Janice Joplin who died at
the same age in 1970…more here
Italian Design’s Best Kept Secret: How the Old Helps the New:
On a recent Sunday evening I was given an unusual
insight in what makes Italian design so successful. It happened at the fair for
young Italian designers, the A.I.Fair (it stands for Artisanal Intelligence)
held on 29 January 2012 in Emperor Hadrian's Temple in the suggestive
Piazza di Pietra in old Rome. A eureka moment!…more (with plenty photographs) here
Writers' Chat: YA Literature
YA literature made headlines in 2011 when the children's books critic for
the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Gurdon, accused some YA novels for being too
violent and inappropriate for a teen market. More
recently an article in the New York Times suggested that modern YA literature
had lost the freshness of Peter Pan…more here
Dylan Paintings Cause a Storm of Criticisms: Is it Fair?
When Bob Dylan the Singer became a
Painter and had a show in the famed Gagosian gallery, all hell broke loose.
Why? Because his paintings are made from photographs that are not even his own!
People started throwing insults like "plagiarism!" or …more here
Wonky Journalism is Back in Fashion: The Electric Kool-Aid
Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
One of my all-time favorites! Would you believe
Tom Wolfe's irreverent masterpiece has been picked up by Time as one
of its 100 Best Nonfiction Books??? I bet Tom Wolfe would have a
fit... more here
A Great Artist is Dead, Long Live Lucien Freud!
Lucien Freud, the greatest 20th century artist
after Picasso, the friend and arch-rival of Francis Bacon, died yesterday, age 88. The greatest living
artist of our times is no more…more here
Is Contemporary Art at a Turning Point?
The more extreme forms of Contemporary Art have
for decades been breaking one record after another at auction sales…more here
Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad: A Slow-burning
Masterpiece?
Why did Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad published
in 2010, take off so slowly?But take off it did...more here
Young Adult Fiction:
is it really a "genre" that sells books?
The publishing industry has always relied on "genre" as a
marketing tool to push its wares, and among them, the most bizarre is YA…more here
How would you write
about the Frankenstein monster?
Some literary themes never die, and one of them is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein monster…more here
Some literary themes never die, and one of them is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein monster…more here
Publishing: What
makes a Blockbuster?
The chances for a blockbuster are remote, more like Nassim Taleb's
"black swan", swooping in unannounced out of a clear blue
sky. Yet, history overtime and recent history as well, is filled with
striking examples …more here
Graffiti: Is It Art? And What Is Art
Anyway?
You'd
think that question was settled now that buildings in most major urban centres
- New York, London, Paris etc - have been cleared of graffiti. But, no, it isn't...…more here
Is Italy's Art
Heritage going to the Dogs?
Italy is the cradle of European art and with 45 registered UNESCO heritage sites, it has more than any other country in the
world. While Italy seems unable to look after it properly, we probably
shouldn't accuse it of negligence...More here
Are we suffering from
Museum-itis or Museum Creation Fever?
The most bizarre museums are created nowadays - for
example, former President of France Jacques Chirac founded a museum in the
small rural village (286 inhabitants) where he was born, in backwaters Correze, to display the...More here
What's Happening to
Contemporary Art? Andrew Vicari as a Counterpoint...
I bet you never heard of him: Andrew Vicari,
now 72, is a British painter - of Italian descent as his name implies - and
reportedly the 18th richest man in the UK, right after Paul McCartney…More here
Stieg Larsson's
Trilogy: Another Black Swan in Literature!
Everyone's heard of that phenomenal blockbuster that's come out of Sweden:
the Millenium Trilogy. The author is a Swedish newspaperman, Stieg Larsson, who…more here
Contemporary Art:
from Duchamp's urinal to Manzoni's sh*t in the box to... what next?
Almost a century ago (in 1917), Marcel Duchamp made Art History with his
urinal, of which there are five copies today in the most important museums
around the world (the original is lost). Almost fifty years ago …more here
When I was a work of
art and didn't know it!
Starting March 14 until May 31 2010, the world-famous Serbian performance
artist Marina Abramovic is going to start sitting behind a table, for 7 hours a
day, for (nearly) 3 months, as long as her retrospective at MOMA lasts…more here
Guess what: the
contemporary art market is...a market!
I didn't say it, Don Thompson said it…more here
Never read a book
about an irritating subject before going to bed...
If you do, you won't sleep!That's what happened to me last night. I opened up a book about Contemporary Art I had received for Christmas and…more here
If you do, you won't sleep!That's what happened to me last night. I opened up a book about Contemporary Art I had received for Christmas and…more here
Yes, it's a losing battle. If you think the Old Masters are up there
sitting on their eternal throne, the subject of adulation by the screaming
masses, think again! True, museums showing their works have multiplied...more here
Damien Hirst vs.
the Wallace Collection - Turner vs. the Great Masters
November
2009, just back from London. Saw two fantastic exhibitions: one was Damien
Hirst at the Wallace Collection, the other was Turner at Tate Britain. Both
reminded me that an artist's ego is as BIG as a house - nay, a palace, a
mountain…More here