Category Archives: Reviews

Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine – December 2024

HARPER’S MAGAZINE – November 18, 2024: The latest issue features ‘The Painted Protest’ – How politics destroyed contemporary art…

The Painted Protest

How politics destroyed contemporary art by Dean Kissick

In the Rockets’ Red Glare

 The past and future of hot-rodding in America by Rachel Kushner

After the Deluge

A small town faces down climate disaster by Gary Greenberg

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Nov. 18, 2024

A view of the Manhattan Bridge seen through a window above a desk in Brooklyn.

The New Yorker (November 18, 2024): The latest issue features Javier Mariscal’s “Desk with a View” Sudden glimpses of urban artistry.

Javier Mariscal’s “Desk with a View”

Sudden glimpses of urban artistry. By Françoise MoulyArt by Javier Mariscal

Why N.S.A. Rules Say No to Smartphones, No to Texting, Yes to Podcasts

The agency, known for listening, is getting into the (extremely vetted) talking game, with “No Such Podcast.”

Art: Picasso’s ‘Masterful Contradictions’ (1925)

Sotheby’s (November 17, 2024):In late September of 1925, Pablo Picasso, his wife Olga and their young son Paolo returned to Paris from their annual summer holiday in the South of France.

The summers were beginning to blend together for Picasso, who was tiring of the swell set he and Olga socialized with. The home they returned to at 23 rue la Boetie was a changed one. After lengthy negotiations, Picasso had acquired an additional floor of the building to be used as his studio.

He set about immediately modifying the space: removing doors from their hinges, bringing in his copious art supplies (and a limited amount of furniture) and stripping back most of the existing wallpaper. After years of jostling with his elegant and socially aspirational wife for space in their apartment on the floor below he relished a place to colonize as his own.

The New York Times Book Review – November 17, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (November 17, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Who’s Johnny?’…

‘Carson the Magnific: Where’s Johnny? The Biography of a TV Host Whose Life Was a Closed Book.

Johnny Carson dominated late-night television for decades, but closely guarded his privacy. Bill Zehme’s biography, “Carson the Magnificent,” tries to break through.ent,’ by Bill Zehme

Combined Print & E-Book Fiction – Best Sellers

Rankings on weekly lists reflect sales for the week ending November 2, 2024.

MIT Technology Review – The Top Stories (11.17.24)

Ai gaping maw with teeth and two clawed hands swallows artworks which tiny artists have put poison symbols on the reverse side. One carries a flag with Ben Zhao's face
Ben Zhao remembers well the moment he officially jumped into the fight between artists and generative AI: when one artist asked for AI bananas. 

MIT Technology Review (Novemer 17, 2024): This week’s round up includes Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment; The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI; Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through and Europa’s icy shell.

The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI

The tools Glaze and Nightshade are giving artists hope that they can fight back against AI that hoovers internet data to train. Are they enough?

Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment

A new system could help train robots entirely in generated worlds.

Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch

Rapid advances in applying artificial intelligence to simulations in physics and chemistry have some people questioning whether we will even need quantum computers at all.

AI search could break the web

Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through Europa’s icy shell

Researchers are working on technology that could follow NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and hunt for life in the ocean of Jupiter’s moon.

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Nov 16, 2024

World Economic Forum (November 16, 2024) – The top stories of the week include:

0:15 AI robot zaps weeds while saving crops – It’s called Concentrated Light Autonomous Weeding and Scouting or CLAWS for short. CLAWS uses AI-powered image processing to identify the crops, then targets weeds around the crop with blasts of concentrated light. This gets rid of unwanted intruders without damaging either crops or soil.

1:52 5 ways bioeconomy affects daily living – The bioeconomy uses renewable resources from land or sea to produce food, energy, and other resources. It focuses on leveraging nature’s processes and products to create sustainable economic outputs. The bioeconomy is already a part of our daily lives, influencing various sectors and industries.

6:08 Iceland sees benefit of a 4-day work week – The Nordic nation of 380,000 is rolling out a new way of working. Between 2020 and 2022, 51% of Iceland’s workers accepted an offer of shorter hours, such as a 4-day week for no loss of pay. The shift has had a positive impact on work-life balance and personal stress, new research shows.

8:17 Restored Amazon ecosystems beat logging – Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance is fighting to safeguard 35 million hectares of rainforest through a collaboration between 30 Indigenous nations of the Amazon basin. There’s an economic case for protecting the Amazon, says Atossa Soltani, Director of Global Strategy, Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance.

#WorldEconomicForum

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – Nov. 18, 2024

Barron's | Financial and Investment News

BARRON’S MAGAZINE (November 9, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Nvidia Way’.

How Jensen Huang and Nvidia Led an AI Revolution

Nvidia’s CEO turned a struggling upstart into the world’s most valuable company. It took 30 years.

Inflation May Not Be Tamed. Commodities Can Protect You.

If prices start rising again, copper, corn, and oil could offer protection.

The Age of AI Is Still in the Early Innings. These 3 Stocks Will Keep Winning.

Barron’s interviewed more than a dozen senior executives across the world’s most important tech companies. Here’s why they remain bullish on the long-term opportunity for AI. Plus, the stocks to buy now.

Artists: Why Rembrandt Paintings Are So Prized

DW Documentary (November 15, 2024): The 17th century was the zenith of painting, in the Netherlands. In no other era were artists so productive. Never before had so many painters tried to make a living from their art. Demand was huge.

People from all walks of life began to enthusiastically collect paintings. New genres were born. And both the art market and the profession of art dealer emerged. Exceptional artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Vermeer and Frans Hals created masterpieces that still inspire us today.

One reason for the cultural heyday and its glut of paintings was an enormous surplus of capital, generated by speculative money transactions and trade, which was also based on the exploitation of the colonies and the ideal conditions that shipping found in the Netherlands. The film traces a period in which art, too, became an economic factor. In a way, the 17th century can be seen as the origin of our current art system.

After all, this was when auction houses were first established, leading to emergence of professional art dealers and wealthy collectors. Art was democratized. This documentary film explores an era when business and art entered into a marriage for the first time. How did such an artistic flourishing come about? What art-historical innovations do we owe to this period? And what significance does it have for our view of art and our approach to art today?

#documentary #dwdocumentary #dwdocs

Arts & Culture: The New Criterion -December 2024

The New Criterion – The December 2024 issue features

Art: a special section

An interview with an Old Masters dealer by Benjamin Riley

Monet reversionism by Paul Hayes Tucker

Tokens of culture by James Panero

Politics & the Venice Biennale by Philip Rylands

A monumental park by Michele H. Bogart

Ghiberti versus Donatello by Eric Gibson

Arts Preview: ARTFORUM Magazine – December 2024

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Artforum Magazine (November 15, 2024) – The latest issue features….

THE WRECK

By Tina Rivers Ryan

BOILING POINT

On the art of Ade Darmawan and Timoteus Anggawan Kusno By Hung Duong

The Aspern Papers

Harold Stevenson.

With every odd stacked against it, Venice rises to the surface as Italy’s art capital By Travis Jeppesen

JOSEPH MARIONI (1943–2024)

Joseph Marioni in his studio, New York, ca. 1974–75.

By Michael Fried

Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei

Xavier Hufkens | Rivoli

By Mateus Nunes