CRITICAL THINKING

ENGLISH, LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION

BIP, BIP, BIP

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For Romanian speakers BIP is the onomatopoeic representation of a digitally produced call for attention from our smart phones. However, in English it may have numerous other meanings as, for example, Blended Intensive Programme. Which is a programme under the larger ERASMUS+ umbrella. A BIP is made up of “short, intensive programmes that use innovative ways of learning and teaching, including the use of online cooperation”.

The Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication in our university organized such a BIP aiming at improving academic communication with a focus on the latest developments in the digital age and networking. More details on the programme are here.

What I am going to highlight here, however, are the things that are not usually seen, but without which no programme can come into existence and also the interactions that go beyond the usual bureaucratic ticking of activities on an evaluation form.

What I mean is that beyond the institutions and departments involved there is usually an engine, a power force, to drive such programmes into existence, to make them happen in a meaningful way, to draw people together and show them the benefits of participating in such events. This power force is in this case Professor Laura Mureșan to whom we all have to be grateful for her extraordinary energy and commitment to make things come into being in professional and relevant ways to all the participants. Besides our university, the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, the organizer of the BIP, the following universities were partners in this BIP: University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain; University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; University of Technology and Economics (UTH), Warsaw, Poland and University of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia.

Some pictures from the event are here.

I was happy to be invited by Laura to share my experience of digital communication with the rest of the participants. I accepted and I almost immediately regretted it having seen the range of topics and expertise that the programme rallied during this week. And particularly since my presentation came after that of Professor Carmen Pérez-Llantada who offered us a state-of-the-art review of Digital Genres and Practices in which she gave us an accurate survey of the theoretical issues in the field as well as of the pedagogical implications that they incur.

Well, as it very often happens personal inputs, especially our anxieties and even struggles, are usually appreciated because they show we all have to deal with trial and error, impostor syndrome and almost nothing comes easy in research and in teaching. I therefore ended up being happy for participating in this worthwhile event, seeing my former colleagues and meeting new people. The joy of participation and listening to other researchers’ endeavours is so important to our own development. This is why I always like to learn about what happens in the world around me.

As very often in this type of situations I am amazed at the humility of the really great iconic figures of a field of study, such as applied linguistics, and the discipline and good conference manners that they have. Carmen Pérez-Llantada is such an extraordinary person who generously encourages people (young or not so young) to approach the field and to advance the construction of knowledge in our D VUCA-D times. It is both a great opportunity and a pleasure to listen to her sense making of a world that seems crazy, of the creative ways researchers generate and communicate knowledge, how they build new identities and how they evaluate research and pedagogical outputs. It is also a great learning experience to listen and reflect on the wise questions she raises.

LECTURI, READINGS

Da vieții – Yes to Life

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Din The Marginalian, buletinul cultural al Mariei Popova din 6 septembrie 2023. Da vieții, în ciuda oricăror împrejurări: prelegerile pierdute ale lui Viktor Frankl despre cea mai profundă sursă de sens. De fapt, o reluare din arhivă.

“Astăzi, fiecare îndemn la acțiune este generat de cunoașterea că nu putem avea încredere în nicio formă de progres. Dacă astăzi nu putem sta deoparte, este tocmai pentru că fiecare dintre noi știm ce și cât „progresează” ceva. Astfel, suntem conștienți că progresul interior este posibil doar pentru fiecare persoană, în timp ce progresul în masă constă cel mult în progres tehnic, care ne impresionează doar pentru că trăim într-o eră tehnică.”

Mi s-a părut adecvat și pentru creativitate. Individual stăm (relativ) bine. Ca societate?! ☹

Print screen.

From Maria Popova’s newsletter, 6 September 2023, Yes to Life, in Spite of Everything: Viktor Frankl’s lost lectures on the deepest source of meaning. Actually, an admirable piece from the archive of The Marginalian.

“Today every impulse for action is generated by the knowledge that there is no form of progress on which we can trustingly rely. If today we cannot sit idly by, it is precisely because each and every one of us determines what and how far something “progresses.” In this, we are aware that inner progress is only actually possible for each individual, while mass progress at most consists of technical progress, which only impresses us because we live in a technical age.”

I thought it’s relevant for creativity as well. Individually we are doing (relatively) well. As a society? ☹

LECTURI, READINGS

Readings / Lecturi

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From an interview with Agustina Bazterrica, on her new short story book “19 Claws and a Black Bird”. It reminds me of Neil Gaiman’s “Babycakes”.

“Tender Is the Flesh is a meditation on what capitalism is – it teaches us to naturalise cruelty,” she says, speaking over Zoom from the home she shares with her husband and two cats in Buenos Aires. “Capitalism is a system into which we are all born, we have it inside of us, and patriarchy is part of that system. I tried to work with this idea that we eat each other in a symbolic way. With women it’s so obvious, because you can talk about human trafficking, war and the way women are made invisible in different spheres. Here in Argentina, they kill women every day. Capitalism and cannibalism are almost the same, you know?”

“I want the short stories to be like claws that take the reader and scrape them a little bit. If you’re indifferent to a text, the text doesn’t work.”

Source:
The Guardian.

Dintr-un interviu cu Agustina Bazterrica, cu ocazia noii sale cărți de nuvele „19 gheare și o pasăre neagră”. Îmi amintește de schița lui Nail Gaiman “Babycakes” (Prăjituri din bebeluși).

„Tender Is the Flesh (Ce moale e carnea) este o meditație asupra capitalismului – ne învață să naturalizăm cruzimea”, spune ea, vorbind pe Zoom din casa din Buenos Aires în care trăiește cu soțul ei și cele două pisici. „Capitalismul este un sistem în care ne naștem cu toții, îl avem în interiorul nostru, iar patriarhatul face parte din acel sistem. Am încercat să lucrez cu ideea că ne mâncăm unii pe alții într-un mod simbolic. Cu femeile este atât de evident, pentru că poți vorbi despre traficul de persoane, război și despre modul în care femeile sunt făcute invizibile în diferite domenii. Aici, în Argentina, femeile se ucid în fiecare zi. Capitalismul și canibalismul sunt aproape la fel, nu-i așa?”

„Vreau ca nuvelele să fie ca niște gheare care apucă cititorii și îi zgârie puțin. Dacă ești indiferent la un text, textul nu este bun.”

ANTREPRENORIAT. LEADERSHIP. AFACERI, ENTREPRENEURSHIP. LEADERSHIP. BUSINESS, ROMANA

Orologiul Corpus II

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De ce este acest orologiu atât de fascinant, de ce a costat cât a costat (1,8 milioane lire sterline), de ce la inaugurare a fost prezent Stephen Hawking, de ce lumea continuă să se fotografieze în fața lui, de ce chiar soțul reginei Elisabeta, prințul Philip a dorit să vadă orologiul inventat de către “omul ceainic” (the kettle man)… de ce?

De ce “omul ceainic”? Pentru că Dr. John C. Taylor și-a făcut averea prin inventarea unui element aparent neînsemnat la care majoritatea utilizatorilor nici măcar nu se gândesc: un comutator prin care un ceainic electric fără cordon se conectează la baza lui. V-ați fi gândit că un mic comutator te poate îmbogăți atât de mult? Sigur că au mai fost și alte invenții, dar toate în sfera comutatoarelor bimetalice folosite într-o mare diversitate de situații, de la mașini la electrocasnice. În seria filatelică dedicată inventatorului și creațiilor lui, Oficiul Poștal din Insula Man celebrează cele mai cunoscute invenții, dar și orologiul Corpus și casa, Arragon Mooar, cea care a fost construită după planurile sale și include elemente arhitecturale deosebite.

Sursa: https://www.johnctaylor.com/my-world/

Revenind la orologiul nostru – este o operă pe care autorul și-a dorit-o complet diferită de un orologiu obișnuit, dar care să funcționeze ca un ceas adevărat. A reușit acest lucru prin multiple aluzii, un rafinament extraordinar al manoperei și doze de umor care au intrat în creația ceasului. Valurile de pe cadranul ceasului descriu timpul extinzându-se din centrul universului după Big Bang și, probabil, sunt o modalitate de a ne aduce aminte de locul nostru în univers.  Designul orologiului este un omagiu adus lui John Harrison,  orologier britanic din secolul XVIII, cunoscut pentru că a dezvoltat ceasurile maritime în operarea cărora a folosit un regulator de ceas sub formă de lăcustă. Dr. John C. Taylor a preluat ideea lăcustei și a făcut-o mult mai mare și vizibilă. Lăcusta creată de Taylor este un mutant, așezat deasupra orologiului și are un comportament imprevizibil. Ceasul este popular printre copii care sunt fascinați de comportamentul imprevizibil al creaturii de deasupra ceasului. Creatura va pocni din gură, va clipi și își va mișca coada, mâncând fiecare a 59 secundă de la sfârșitul unui minut, astfel încât să nu o poți recupera niciodată. De aceea se numește Cronofagul. Un avertisment pentru modul în care pierdem timpul irecuperabil vreodată. Pe pagina dedicată orologiului există un videoclip de trei minute în care vedem cum s-a născut acest proiect magnific.

Orologiul nu are limbi. El marchează timpul prin leduri albastre care sclipesc prin fantele existente pe fața sa. Timpul este relativ, adică uneori mai rapid, alteori mai încet ca și în viață, dar este corectat la fiecare 5 minute. La dezvelirea orologiului, Stephen Hawking a îndemnat la reflecție punând întrebări ca: “De ce timpul se scurge doar înainte? Are timpul început și sfârșit? Ne putem mișca lateral în timp?” Iar la fiecare oră se aud în spatele feței orologiului căzând lanțuri într-un cosciug de lemn. Oricine am fi, timpul se scurge ireversibil și, ajungem, mai devreme sau mai târziu, în același loc.

Sărbători fericite!

ANTREPRENORIAT. LEADERSHIP. AFACERI, ENGLISH, ENTREPRENEURSHIP. LEADERSHIP. BUSINESS, ROMANA

Smiling & joking leaders // Lideri zâmbitori și care spun glume

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What research areas some cultures have: the influence of humor and/or smiling on organizational efficiency! Over here (in Bucharest, Romania) we think that too much smiling shows hypocrisy, lip-service, you name it. And humor? That also depends. Why? On what? Long story.

This piece of research done by two Stanford academics involved over 1.4 million people, in 166 countries.  The question was easy: “Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?” The answers? At age 16, 18, or 20, people generally said “yes”. At 23, the answer changed to “no”—and people don’t start laughing again until they retire.

OMG!!! The research question became: how would the work world change for the better if people smiled more?

Some answers:

  • leaders with a sense of humor—good, amazing or just plain—are 27 % more motivating and inspiring.
  • the employees of the above leaders are 15 % more engaged and their teams are twice as creative as measured by having them solve a creativity challenge.
  • one of their studies showed that a simple, light hearted line to the end of a sales pitch can get you an 18 % higher price point.

Simple, isn’t it?!! Actually, it’s much more complicated. Culture, culture, culture. They even wrote a book about it.

Madison Oren
https://unsplash.com/photos/uGP_6CAD-14?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink
Lidya Nada https://unsplash.com/photos/_0aKQa9gr4s?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

Ce domenii de cercetare există în unele culturi: influența umorului și/sau zâmbetului asupra eficienței organizaționale! Aici (în București, România) credem că prea mult zâmbet demonstrează ipocrizie, vorbe și nu fapte, orice altceva în sensul ăsta. Și umorul? Depinde. De ce? De cine? Poveste lungă.

Această cercetare realizată de două doamne, cadre didactice de la Universitatea Stanford, s-a realizat pe 1,4 milioane de oameni din 166 de țări. Întrebarea a fost ușoară: „Ai zâmbit sau ai râs mult ieri?” Raspunsurile? La 16, 18 sau 20 de ani, oamenii au spus în general „da”. La 23 de ani, răspunsul s-a schimbat în „nu” – iar oamenii nu încep să râdă din nou până când se pensionează.

NU POT SĂ CRED!!! Întrebarea pentru cercetare s-a transformat în: cum s-ar schimba lumea muncii în mai bine dacă oamenii ar zâmbi mai mult?

Câteva răspunsuri:

• liderii cu simțul umorului — bun, uimitor sau simplu — au o capacitate cu 27 % mai mare de a fi motivanți și inspiratori față de cei fără această trăsătură.

• angajații liderilor de mai sus sunt cu 15 % mai implicați, iar echipele lor sunt de două ori mai creative când rezolvă o problemă presupunând creativitate.

• unul dintre studiile celor două cercetătoare a arătat că o poantă simplă folosită la sfârșitul unui mesaj de vânzare sau al unei reclama poate aduce un preț cu 18 % mai mare.

Simplu, nu-i așa?!! Nu chiar. De fapt, este mult mai complicat. Cultura locală este foarte importantă. De asta au și scris o carte despre asta.

CREATIVE WRITING, ENGLISH, ENTREPRENEURSHIP. LEADERSHIP. BUSINESS

Five days?

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I had this incredibly rich experience of teaching at the summer school of the Ostrava University. I taught the module of Creativity from the overall theme „Entrepreneurship and Creativity for All”.

I was a tiny bit apprehensive about how the course will go. I always am at the beginning of a new course. Not only because a group of international students is more difficult to work with than the students of your own university whose general group profile you probably know, even if you don’t know them personally. I was also worried about what to chose, how much to select from the increasing heap of materials and research about creativity in today’s troubled world. And, mainly, what kind of practical activities in which they will easily engage and find meaningful?

Those enrolled were people mostly from arts study programs, rather different from my regular business students. I knew that well in advance because the organizers had been very professional: kept me updated on all issues, sent me the brochure with „Who’s who in the summer school” with pictures and a brief self-presentation of the students. True, not all who have signed up really showed up! But this was actually an asset: we were a group of 14 people who worked better and easier together.

The students were from all over the world and could participate in the summer school thanks to the Erasmus+ programme. Some of them where from Czechia; and also from China, Russia, Koreea, Indonesia and Taiwan. And me, from Romania. Quite an interesting mix of cultures.

The building where we had our classes.

I could write a book about all the things we did and discussed about. Maybe in the future. Now I’d like only to look at the students and how incredibly open, dynamic and ready to learn they were. Yeah, I know, I know – they were sometimes late (overslept or other absolutely valid reasons), sometimes drawn into their own worlds. All in all, however, they were aware of the need for mindfulness and ready to share their own concerns and preoccupations with the group.

So, I’ll share in this post the beginning and the end of the course. I’ll do it using pictures and the student’s own words. There will, obviously, be no names. No connections between the pictures and the words. And to put your concerns at ease I have their consent to put pictures on Facebook, which means I can publish them here as well.  

At the end of a long day of presenting projects

At the beginning of the course we did some warming up activities to get to know each other and to test our own creative vein. What can you do with and from a cabbage? And what have we learnt about one another? The participants had to give their feedback the next day in the form they found easier for them. Here are some: a poem, some ppts, a poster, word reports.

Feedback to first day together

And here are some pictures with people actually delivering their feedback.

I was really, really impressed by the final presentations. The thinking and the actual work that has been put into them under such brief time. And mainly the discussions that each presentation raised, irrespective of the medium in which it was created. As if it were a real life project, advice was given, concerns raised, solutions sought. I hated myself every time I had to stop people. Time has no mercy.

We also had some incredible outings. So much fun, getting to know each other from other perspectives as well. We had a pub quiz (and yes the winners got the prizes, but we were all enriched by the evening), we went to visit one of the most creative heritage sites that I have ever seen – Dolni oblast Vitkovice. And we unleashed our creativity at the Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava at a great workshop where children didn’t mind mixing with us.

Five days? Really? It seems as if we traveled among various universes. As one of the students said – as in 500 years.

Maybe I’ll have to write a book in the end. Not to lose the richness of the experience we had. Tell others, and myself, how important it is to go out into the world and meet new people, particularly from other cultures, hopefully people against whom you maybe prejudiced and they show you that you have to move on in your assumptions because the world has moved on. And we are all now so different.  

To be continued.

ENGLISH, ENTREPRENEURSHIP. LEADERSHIP. BUSINESS, LIFE

Creativity – on the line?

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Great ideas come and go easily. That’s why we have the impression that we are so creative. But we are not. In fact we are only imaginative, dreamers at best. Only few people have the strength, the discipline and, yes, the education to follow their ideas and turn them into reality. Natalia Irina Roman is one of those people and on her way to strike gold. Or, if not, at least to complete her Ph.D. in an impressive manner.

A great idea presented in 90 seconds under the classic format of the elevator pitch. A wonderful presenter, great idea, amazing content, so connected to our everyday life and commuter worries. As we are most of us commuters – one way or the other. Natalia is a gifted presenter, but she is also very much aware of the need to prepare. Which makes her a hard worker.

Who is Natalia Irina Roman? She is a space-maker and a visual artist, a woman of great imagination and the strength to apply her ideas. More about her here.

And you can find her idea of a great and useful project here. Presented in 90 seconds at the Bauhaus University Weimar.

I told Natalia that her project reminded me of another one called Poems on the Underground. But while talking more with her I realised that they are so different both in scope and in the space they use. And yet, they are both challenging for the comfort of today’s people. Keeping our eyes glued to a screen makes us miss the serendipitous encounters that we can only find through our own experiences and on our own journeys.

Thank you, Natalia, for a great lesson.

CONFERENCES, ENGLISH

What do we talk about when we talk about the Asian century? And in what language/s?

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Last week I was happy to be invited to speak at a prestigious as well as important conference: the 8th Forum – International Conference “Middle East in Quest for Security, Stability, and Economic Identity” organized by the joint efforts of several entities. You can find more details here: https://mepei.com/annual-international-conference-hybrid-format-the-8th-forum-middle-east-in-quest-for-security-stability-and-economic-identity/

The title of my speech is the title of this post. You can either browse through the text or listen to the actual speech here: https://www.facebook.com/MiddleEastPoliticalandEconomicInstitute/videos/391467419516534  from 7.28.07 to 7.45.00. I just can’t believe I talked so much.

It has always been my strong belief that the world is much more than Europe or any other part in our close proximity wherever we may happen to be living. Being in education, I have always tried to live, as much as possible, by the beliefs I have. In other words, do what I say. Not at all easy, particularly in this age of fake news, post truth, etc. etc. And yet, since what we call internationalization/globalization should refer to the world, and not only to certain selected parts of it, I started to look at what is beyond my immediate proximity.

Let me, please, give you some idea what I’m going to say in the next few minutes: I will talk about the importance of languages and culture in international understanding or rather misunderstanding, I will tell you, from my own experience what type of knowledge the general public has about Asia. I’ll tell you about my personal perceptions about Asia accompanied by many questions to which I do not have answers except the need for more and better education.

So, since this event is also under the auspices of the 120th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Romania and Iran I would like to mention that two months ago I made a three weeks trip to Iran. What is so special about it? First, Iran is not a preferred tourist destination for Romanians, let alone Romanian women. We were a group of 6 women led by our tour guide, the 7th woman. Second, there are so many stereotypes and simply distorted facts about Iran not only in Romania, but pretty much around the Western world.  

We started from Tehran, flew down to the island of Qeshm, came back by ferry to the continent and were driven by our local guide and driver, Muhamad, through the Kalut Desert, spent a memorable night at the Maymand Guesthouse, which means caves, we were more than impressed by the traditional city of Yazd, amazed by Shiraz, Persepolis and Necropolis, had an incredibly amazing time in the Zagros Mountains where we spent a night with the local people, the Bakhtiaris, and then through Esfahan and Kashan back to Tehran and home. And since I cannot explain briefly the great cultural impact Iran/Persia had on myself and my fellow travellers, I have decided to write a series of articles that are being published in Romanian and will, hopefully, be a book in Romanian and in English by the end of this year.

Iran is not the first or only exotic destination to which I travelled and  have written about.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have totally changed the way we look at the world and interact with it. Let me please point out some discrepancies between what we want/are told to believe about European and US exceptionalism and the rest of the world:

  • Demographically, more than 50% of the world’s population lives now in Asia.
  • From among the world’s 30 megacities, 21 are at present in Asia and even there, according to UN data, shifts are happening fast, so by 2030 Delhi will overtake Tokyo as the world’s largest city.
  • In terms of economic data – well it all depends on what we read and who does the statistics. Even so, and even after the Ukraine conflict affects the global GDP a report of the UN  Department of Economic and Social Affairs shows that almost all regions in the world are affected by high inflation except for East Asia and South Asia. In other words, the Asians, rich, crazy rich, not so rich or even those downright poor, continue to have an impressive effect on the world trade, especially through their purchasing power. And the references to economic sanctions today have been clear.

Issues of identity and culture are common in today’s world, Asian and non-Asian. We know they are important, we academics study the issues and … with all due respect, politicians do whatever they think they need to do. Will things really change in the coming world? What will the new normal look like? Is Asia a sustainable hub of the megatrends that are already changing our world/s? And if so, which part of Asia? Japan, China and India have long been in the forefront of large and fast-growing economies. Vietnam, the Philippines and Bangladesh have left behind some European economies (the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland). Is Europe playing its cards right or is it left behind or even worse suffer consequences?  Is technology going to be a dream come true for most people or just another nightmare? Will we be able to work in mixed teams with robots and AI? Based on whose culture? And who will lead? And … who are we?

In what language do we speak about Asia, or about the Middle East for that matter? Obviously in English. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. But we miss a lot of the culture and deep meanings that speaking a language reveals.

Fuzzy geographies, fluid terminology and a general lack of education are the common enemies against solving conflicts. People operate more and more with cliches and stereotypes because it is easier and more comfortable. But is it good? And for whom?

What can be done? Education, education, more education.

  • Encourage students to think critically and creatively, expressing themselves, not only reproducing and echoing our own thoughts and ideas
  • Stress importance of life-long learning, not degrees grabbing
  • Encourage students (ourselves and our colleagues as well) to read books, not only articles
  • Encourage and reward patience, hard work and discipline
  • Role model more humility than arrogance
  • Politeness, courtesy, etiquette and netiquette, civility
  • Introduce diversity in our classes through case studies, business models that are not only mainstream or coming from the Anglo-Saxon traditions, but also from Asia and other parts of the world

Thank you!

ENGLISH, READINGS

In the eyes of the beholder

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How do we look at women? And what do we see? In paintings or even in real life? Or do we really see them? Our invisibility is still incredibly strong in spite of some progress made in certain parts of the world.

These are some of the questions that Mary Bevan’s book raises and the answers are often challenging and therefore thought-provoking. Our answers obviously depend on the historical context, on the fate of the painters and, yes, on the eyes of the beholder. Remember?! Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.  

Mary Bevan tells us the stories of women in some of the paintings she chose – for various reasons. The book she wrote is “Escaping the Frame. Women in Famous Pictures tell their Stories”. It was published in 2021.

It is a small, beautifully crafted book to carry with you around, maybe when you walk in a park and sit down for a rest, maybe in your own house to read in its various corners. For me it’s a book to come back to. It’s not a thriller you cannot put down. It’s a book that makes you reflect, that engages you, that makes you want to come back to it, to draw up the paintings on Google, to decide whether Mary Bevan’s interpretation is in agreement with what you yourself think or not.

I love the cover: a pink background, what else when you choose women for your reflections, with an ornate gilded frame which shows us a black void from which the title emerges trying to escape the frame indeed and reach out to us. On the front cover, the frame encloses the blackness of women’s still little-known history and on the back cover the same frame shows us the rationale behind the book.

The text is minimalist though it sends the reader on her or his own journey of rich discoveries and helps us escape the frames of our own prejudices. The book is written under the form of monologues of the women painted by famous male painters or by women artists who have been disadvantaged in the world of men. Mary Bevan wants to give them the voice they have been denied as objectified characters in a men’s world.  And she does so with great empathy and cultural sensitivity as well as with a skilful selection of the women trying to break out of the frame of silence and their painters’ gaze across six centuries. Only two of the twenty-two monologues of the book are spoken by men. Both men are either imaginary or unknown which is in some way ironical and in another some sort of late justice for the many women muted by society.

Women’s invisibility in Sylvia Pankhurst’s watercolour and in Martha Rosler’s pop art collage.

Sylvia Pankhurst, Hanna Pauli, Martha Rosler and Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale are the women artists that Mary Bevan has chosen to stand out and show us women painted by women.

It’s through true literary craftsmanship that such a miniature book offers such a wealth of information and discussion points. Its multiple layers send the readers to explore not only the actual paintings, but also the whole world of commentaries, lectures and videos that are connected to them.

Mary Bevan’s book is a book to keep and a book to give – as a gift.