MICHELE ROBECCHI

Michele Robecchi is an Italian writer and curator based in London. Former Managing Editor of Flash Art (2001-2004) and Senior Editor at Contemporary Magazine (2005-2007), he is currently a Visiting Lecturer at Christie’s Education and an editor at Phaidon Press, where he edited monographs on Marina Abramovic, Francis Alÿs, Jorge Pardo, Stephen Shore and Ai Weiwei.

Brendan Mullen. Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2005.

Another old book which I managed to get around to just now. This biography is composed of new and old interview excerpts, chronicling the rise and fall of Jane’s Addiction, from their early days in LA to their triumph and consequent break-up. This band invented a lot and it is difficult to understand why they ended up being so overlooked by music historians. Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Sonyc Youth, Soundgarden and Henry Rollins are only a few of the people who pay their respects in this book. Big, long, epic, classic guitar solos; slow, beautiful ballads; acoustic guitars; psychedelic stuff; drums and tambourines; art films… this is what this band brought to the table. They definitely worked a much wider musical palette than any other band of the era.

Jay McInerney. «The Last Bachelor.» How it Ended. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.

This is a collection of novels that showcases an author at the top of his form. Jay McInerney has all the ingredients of a fine writer: empathy, curiosity, talent, and creativity. Here he points his lens on the love life of a group of so-called ordinary couples. What emerges from these relationships is a mix of passion and mystery, where silences and secrets have the best over confidence and faith. Pregnancies, arguments, affairs, funerals are treated as everyday occurrences – events that just mark the passing of time. Even during the most dramatic or hilarious moments, the reader is never allowed to forget the big picture. A great book.

VVAA. Franz Gertsch Retrospective. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2006.

I went to see this exhibition at the Museum Franz Gertsch and the Kunstmuseum in Bern in 2005, but I could only afford to buy the catalogue now. Franz Gertsch is an outstanding artist for whom I have the uttermost respect. This book covers his entire career, from the late 1950s to the 2000s, and it is great to have such detailed insight into how his style has developed over five decades. The essays by Reinhard Spieler, Joachim Jäger, Peter J. Schneemann and Samuel Vitali are very good, and the reproductions are splendid. There is also a list of people portrayed in the paintings compiled by Elke Kania – a very useful key for reading Gertsch’s 1970s work, where the likes of Urs Lüthi, Jean-Christoph Ammann and Luciano Castelli and Patti Smith were regulars. The only setback is the chronology, which is largely incomplete. Gertsch had a long and prolific career and it would be great to have a publication providing an exhaustive summary of all the literature and exhibitions he was involved with.