PinWall N°15, July-August 2022

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Harper’s Pick N° 15

A Sophistication Focussed Selection of NEWS for you

Bookology

A Revolution on Canvas

Author: Parids A. Spies-Gans
Published: Paul Mellon Centre, 19th July 2022

Around the world, there has been a mini-flood of monographs and exhibitions on historical women artists, and their work is suddenly a profitable art market commodity. How to assess their careers remains a question, however. What was their place in and contribution to th5 art worlds they inhabited? Of what we know of them, what is inherited stereotyping on the one hand or over-eager feminist reading on the other? And to what extent is the current vogue for their work merely diversity box-ticking rather than genuine recognition?

Raphael

Author: David Ekserdjian, Tom Henry, Thomas Campell, Caroline Elam
Published: National Gallery, London; 14th June 2022

Among the significant figures of the Italian Renaissance, Raphael (1483-1520) is unarguably the artist who has been most widely and consistently admired across the centuries. He had an extraordinary and perhaps unrivalled capacity for self-reinvention. He progressed from Umbria to Florence and Rome and could draw strength from the other great artists around him. Seemingly growing in stature, the more daunting the competition became. This insightful, impeccably researched, and comprehensive volume chronicles the progress of his career in all its richness and complexity.

Farah`s Story

Author: Ezzedine Choukri Fisher
Publisher: Dar-Al-Shorouk

Farah’s story is Ezzedine Choukri Fisher’s eighth novel. But the first to adopt a woman’s point of view and voice. The book follows Farah, whose entire life unravels in a day: she destroys her home, leaves her husband, abandons her mother in a home, and forcefully stops her daughter’s wedding. What appears to be unfounded cruelty is a woman’s attempt to find her true self in the rubble that has become her life. The book is longlisted for the 2022 IPAF (International Prize for Arabic Fiction).

Where is my Name?

Author: Dima al-Shukr
Publisher: Dar al-Adab

The book rescues a 19th-century woman from literary obscurity and tells her story. Qamour is a young Syrian girl who worked as a maid in the house of the British consul, Richard Francis Burton, translator of The Thousand and One Nights into English in the nineteenth century. She accompanied him on his travels, and he asked her to collect stories and eyewitness testimonies of the 1860 massacre of Damascus. However, the subsequent book, made possible only with Qamour’s help, would be published without the name of its female author. The IPAF judges say that “Where Is My Name? “brings to life events and conflicts of the past, highlighting the sufferings of ordinary people and foreign, orientalist views of Arab cultural heritage and identity”.

Summer Refill

Peter Brook

Peter Brook has died aged 97. He was among the most influential theatre directors of the 20th century, reinventing the art by paring it back to drama’s most basic and powerful elements.
A prodigy who made his professional directorial debut at just 17, Brook was a singular talent right from the start.
The Royal Shakespeare Company, where Brook was most recently an honorary associate artist, called him “a giant of the European theatre, who breathed exhilarating new life into the art form” in a statement.
photo@ lionel bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images

An NFT twist

What about a supposed “Leonardo” whose veracity is in question? What if the work in question is locked away in a Swiss vault, out of reach of experts and the general public, and the thing being sold is a digital copy bought online and projected onto a holographic screen made of pricey crystal? Does it even have any worth?
The answer from the art world to that final query is a resounding yes. The fictitious collector @ModeratsArt purchased a non-fungible token (NFT) of the alleged da Vinci piece La Bella Principessa earlier this year. It is believed to represent Bianca Sforza, the illegitimate daughter of Milanese High Renaissance family member Ludovico Sforza. It was purchased for more than $103,739 in ether through an auction on the NFT marketplace MakersPlace. @ModeratsArt opted not to respond.
photo@ziereis facsimiles

Chief Heat Officer

Eleni Myrivilli is Europe`s first Chief Heat Officer (CHO). Her task will be to find ways to cool the city of Athens beyond the obvious air conditioning. As we all know, air conditioning only adds to the world’s climate crisis through massive energy worldwide. Myrivilli will be planting trees and plants and cultivating green spaces for shade. Their cooling properties will be vital, as will redesigning roads and buildings and examining the materials used for building.
photo@Lydia Emmanouilidou/The World

Curcuma is a disappointment

Curcuma must be the most hyped spice in recent years. The “superfood” is supposed to prevent a wide range of illnesses. It is said to heal chronic inflammation, reduce tumour-causing compounds, and help with aching joints and various other illnesses, including Alzheimer’s. True followers of a super healthy lifestyle have a Curcuma latte instead of coffee and believe it has the same properties as cortisone. A recent study found that only one of the tested 21 Curcuma powders was free of pesticides, chrome and lead. Four of the tested powders contained Benzo(a)pyrene – a carcinogenic toxin. All products did show a high degree of mineral oil particles.
Photo@gloryfeel

Supplements

Women enter a male domain

The pandemic gave the watch world far more than just skyrocketing watch sales; it also gifted the community with a new and much-needed association called Watch Femme. Founded by journalist Suzanne Wong, PR consultant Laetitia Hirschy, and industry executive Nathalie Veysset, the express mission of this venture is to promote inclusivity, amplify women’s voices, highlight female contributions, and help create opportunities for this majorly underrepresented group.
Photo@quill&pad

Hermès in KSA

Fêted French Maison Herme has now opened its first perfume and cosmetic store in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Located inside one of the largest shopping malls in the capital Riyadh. “We were exploring the right opportunity to open the first Hermes branch in the Kingdom after we opened the first Hermés beauty store in the region. The perfume and beauty boutique in the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. It was important to study this step from all aspects since this is the brand’s first store in the Kingdom, and the most suitable place for this distinguished store was in Riyadh,” said Agnès de Villiers (CEO, Hermès Beauty&Perfum).
photo@Hermes via retail&leisure international

Monaco

After a two-year break, the Bal de la Rose is back. The ball raises funds for the Princess Grace Foundation- established in 1964- intending to give humanitarian aid to children in need and support cultural projects for students. After she died in 1982, her husband, Prince Rainer III, asked his daughter Caroline to continue with the foundation. She has done so ever since. And the annual Bal de la Rose is one of the foundation’s primary sources of revenue.
photo@SC Pool/Corbis/Getty Images via Titler

Global citizen´s favourite

Olympic Tower, built between 1971-1976, has all the modernist aesthetics and is home to 225 condominiums at 641 Fifth Avenue, an absolute marvel within the Midtown East area. An ad in Le Monde called Olympic Tower “the first New York residential address for citizens of the world. The 52-story Olympic Tower at 641 Fifth Avenue in Midtown is situated between 51st and 52nd Streets and was developed by Aristotle Onasis. The building’s amenities include elevator attendants, 24-hour concierge service, a gym, a barber, a hair salon, a bicycle room, a fitness centre, and emergency electric power in the event of a power outage. A place where foreign billionaires have long flocked. The high-rise is ideal for those who’d rather not do anything themselves.

A new love collection

Interior Designer Vinita Chaitanya seeks her inspiration from nature, travel, and reading. She recently collaborated with Jaipur Rugs for an Inde Rose collection, a first-of-its-kind collection of coordinated silk carpet pairings. It was designed so that the rugs can be used as sophisticated pairs in rooms or in multiple layers, where pattern links to pattern, colour layers on colour and the collection, with its exquisite botanicals, architectural elements, and rural craftsmanship, creates endless possibilities.
Photo@lifestyleasia/jaipurrugs instagram/vinita chaitanya instagram

Summer 2022 take-away

“The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is, is another question.”
James Joyce