Watching Pallapugno
We arrived in Cortemilia as guests of Massimo Vacchetto, which, in local terms, is like arriving in Naples under the wing of Maradona. It had been over a year since we first met him, in the chill of February, 2024, alone on a court in Alba.
Now it was June, over a year later, and the stage was set. Approaching the venue we were met with long rows of cars parked tightly against stone buildings. A crowd gathered at the ticket office housed in a small wooden hut. The air was warm with the smell of hazelnuts and Barbera, team photos being taken at the beginning, just as the sun tucked itself behind the hills, casting long shadows across the concrete court.
The Old Man and the Sea
Alfred Wallis liked to paint with his door open. Living alone in a little house in St. Ives, a short walk from Porthmeor beach, the self-taught artist only took up painting in his 70s, working with cheap paint, bits of scrap, cardboard and even the back of train schedules to depict the schooners, trawlers, white-washed cottages and lonely lighthouses of Cornwall.
His neighbours thought he was a bit odd, Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood thought he was an outsider art genius.
Product in Focus
The Revue: Lucia Bell-Epstein
