Family Life CEO

04/06/2020

21/05/2020

There is a couple of things on my mind when I think about art museums. Some of them are specifically post-COVID, but globally speaking those considerations would be relevant to museums also in the absence of the global pandemic. First, of course, a small disclaimer: who am I to talk about what art museums should do? I am not an insider, I have never worked for an art museum or been on its board. [ 837 more words ]

There is a couple of things on my mind when I think about art museums. Some of them are specifically post-COVID, but globally speaking those considerations would be relevant to museums also in the …

27/04/2020

When reflecting on dynasties of doctors or lawyers or sportsmen, I always wonder if kids were really born to continue the profession of their parents, or they simply somehow “didn’t know any better”? Same with hobbies, same with skills... I wonder: do we intentionally or unintentionally limit our kids by primarily passing on to them what we ourselves know and like? [ 427 more words ]

When reflecting on dynasties of doctors or lawyers or sportsmen, I always wonder if kids were really born to continue the profession of their parents, or they simply somehow “didn’t know any better…

27/02/2020

Imagine a blockbuster suspense movie that keeps viewers literally glued to the screen forgetting about their surroundings. The gripping page-turner : How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by investigative reporters Laney and Aly is surely a book equivalent of such a blockbuster. It is an recounting a story of one of the most daring cons in the , where not only artworks were forged, but most importantly the archives of prominent institutions (like e.g. Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum) were compromised to create a solid paper trail. The provenance: without that, artwork can be worthless, yet the firm one can blind experts into confidently accepting a fake.

Extremely well-written, the book reads like a novel except that it is a true story, a real scandalous case that shook the art world in the late 20th century. The criminal scheme plotted by British self-proclaimed physics professor John resulted in more than 200 forgeries put on the art market in the period between 1986 and 1995. According to his accomplice and the forger himself, John , about 120 of them are still in circulation at this moment. All with impeccable provenances.

The book provides a meticulous description of the steps John Drewe took to pull off his scam, recounts how he charmed his way into the upper echelons of the renown art institutions, how he gained access to their archives and how he plagued them with fabricated records of fictional exhibitions, restorations, and sales. To his misfortune, Drewe came across an expert (Mary Lisa Palmer from the Association) diligent enough to look at the actual work and follow her instincts saying it was wrong, rather than blindly accepting the perfect paperwork provided with it. Likewise, Tate archivist Jennifer Booth did not fall for Drewe’s charm. It was them who eventually helped Scotland Yard in bringing John Drewe and his accomplices to justice. ➡️➡️➡️ (scroll to read more)

06/02/2020

How many times have you faced a situation that you see a large crowd of people and turn around to go away? I have it regularly. There were liquidation sales at a golf shop, where I really wanted to have my shopping spree. Guess what, I was not the only one. However, when I saw the line of cars, desperately trying to find a parking spot in the neighborhood, I turned around and went home. [ 206 more words ]

How many times have you faced a situation that you see a large crowd of people and turn around to go away? I have it regularly. There were liquidation sales at a golf shop, where I really wanted t…

04/02/2020

One of the artworks exhibited in the Belfius Art Collection is Tombeaux — a work of a famous contemporary artist Jan Vercruysse. These are four amazingly realistic and beautiful musical instruments made in Murano glass. This artwork made me think about the concept of authorship or better about what actually defines an author?

To elaborate on Tombeaux, Jan Vercruysse came up with the idea, described that idea, yet he was not the craftsman blowing the glass. However, if we think about it, the work of a craftsman is essential for this idea to be realized. One could even rephrase that without a craftsman who is able to blow glass in the exact right way this artwork would not be possible. On the other hand, what is the skill without an exact idea?…

Another example which came to mind are the installations at Verbeke foundation — a private art site founded by art collectors Geert and Carla Verbeke-Lens. At this art site they engage a lot of volunteers who are frequently also helping with assembling and even in general with making the installations. The same question here: who is then the author — the one who conceived an idea or the one who actually realized it?

Likewise, some famous painters entrusted their apprentices with an actual painting or at least a part of it. The big master imagined the painting, made orders to his apprentices as to how it should look and signed the final result at the end. However, the actual work was realized by somebody else. Here I slightly touch upon the matter of provenance, yet I would like to skip it for now and address it more substantially in one of the future articles.

However, coming back to the question: so what is it exactly that defines an author? What does a person need to do in order to be regarded as an author from a point of view of copyright?

This matter might seem basic and straightforward: an author is somebody who created something, right? Not really. Citing, the US Justice Thurgood Marshall’s statement in case Community for Creative non-violence vs. Reid: ➡️➡️➡️

30/01/2020

Stress and burnout: very frequently those two go hand in hand. If you are constantly exposed to a lot of stress that will eventually lead you to burnout. But will it?
Burnout only seems like an unavoidable consequence of stress, yet it is not always the case. What is crucial is not how much stress there is in your life, but rather how good you are at managing this stress (and how long it is the exposure, but that is a different story). There are several steps or attention points which can significantly improve your stress-managing abilities.
To begin with,
1️⃣ Whatever it is – don’t add to it! Stressful situations occur. Unpleasant emotions, difficult conversations, weight of responsibility, things going wrong, you name it! If you start adding your frustration or even worse – your regrets – to all that, you are only enhancing the level of stress. Easier said than done; I know. What you can do to make it easier on yourself is something I am telling everybody all the time: write it down! Things look easier on paper, trust me.

2️⃣ Say “no” to what you don’t need in your life. It can be too much of unnecessary or useless information (mainly political and/or gossip information here…), too much of emotional input from some people (yes, some people have a tendency to just “flood” you with their negative emotions, but you are not a dustbin, are you?), just too much of… whatever! Everything is OK in moderation.
3️⃣ Related to the previous point, and actually in order to be able to do the previous point, you need to know yourself and your limits. This is where it all starts. There was an interesting study by Kandi Wiens and Annie McKee about medical professionals. What the researchers discovered was that even medical professionals constantly exposed to extreme level of stress are able to deal with it without burnout if they have a high level of self-awareness.

22/01/2020

We were driving in our car the other day and there was a commercial on the radio saying something about discounts available both online and offline. It was then that our daughter asked: “but, mom, offline doesn’t exist, does it?”... Yeah... Almost, kiddo, almost. Aside from putting a large smile on my face, this comment of hers made me wonder about the future. [ 312 more words ]

We were driving in our car the other day and there was a commercial on the radio saying something about discounts available both online and offline. It was then that our daughter asked: “but, mom, …

21/01/2020

Have you noticed that even those people who are shy and reserved in real life, who tend to abstain from engaging in a debate, happen to actively voice their opinions on the web?

How many “anonymous” comments have you seen recently? Were they harsh, judgemental and maybe even cruel? Probably. At least much more so compared to the ones voiced out loud, in real life.

Allow me to give you some food for thought:

Do you know the story of Venetian Carnival? What started as a nice idea of entertainment, rapidly turned to be plain dangerous. Hiding one’s identity behind fancy masks very soon became the perfect environment breeding crime of all sorts: theft, harassment, even murders. That triggered a series of laws and decrees significantly limiting (and even prohibiting) the use of masks.

Although I tend to believe in good in humanity, I also cannot disregard all these famous psychological experiments, like Zimbardo’s Standford Prison experiment (“Google” that one, if you don’t know it — it’s frightening!) So does it mean that when we hide behind “a mask” there is a monster in all of us?…

Also my favorite contemporary author — Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt — talked about that. He explored one of the facets of good vs. evil in a person in his controversial (yet thought-provoking, skilfully crafted and simply incredible!) book “The Alternative Hypothesis”, which explores the life of…Hitler… if the jury would have accepted him in the Fine Art Academy in Vienna. Had it changed the course of the world? And most importantly could anyone of us under certain conditions had become Hitler?… And if so — wouldn’t anonymity, or “the mask” if you will act as such main condition?

There is a Russian kid’s short story about a boy Deniska, where the morale is “everything concealed will always be found out“. There the boy threw his porridge out of the window telling his mom he ate it, for her to discover shortly after that his porridge ended up on one gentleman’s hat…

All that poses a question: are people inherently evil and are behaving well only out of fear of punishment? And consequently, if they cannot be identified and prosecuted they will do all awful things possible? 👉

09/01/2020

In one of my articles I talked about why I believe that teaching kids to play golf is a truly good idea. Let me give a quick bullet-point recap of that.

Thus, golf teaches you:
✔️honesty and integrity, as you keep your own score
✔️strategy, as you need to constantly keep in mind the next hit (and sometimes hit sideways first to ensure your next one gets you further)
✔️humility, as you can screw up big time even if you are a PRO
✔️endurance, as the game lasts 4-4,5 hours
✔️that your main opponent is yourself, as the score is benchmarked against the PAR (defined number of strokes for each hole)
✔️fairness, not just equality, as you can compete with somebody much more advanced than you (the score is fairly adjusted)
✔️to truly enjoy, as even if it doesn’t go, as expected you will have a great time!

All that is already reasons enough to get yourself some golf clubs and start practising. However, there is even more to the game.

In order to succeed in golf, you need to be really good at adapting to circumstances. You don’t know where your ball lands and you have to play it where it lies. It could be that there is a branch of a tree sticking right into your face. It could be that you need to crawl into a muddy side, or into spiky bushes. Just like in business or in life in general, you have to “play the ball where it lies” and make the best of it.

Good skill trains is also the ability to focus correctly. Golf is all about the process and that is what you should focus on — good-old “here and now”. Actually, golf in general perfectly stimulates . It forces you to be in the moment, let go of all your annoying thoughts and just hit the ball. You need to have your basics right, but if you try to overthink it and fail to relax, your swing will never be as good as it can be.
But isn’t that the same in business? And in life in general?

04/01/2020

You can miss something and not want it back. Paulo Coelho.

I can feel sad that I no longer have the freedom I used to have before kids. And I sometimes do. There are moments when the persistence and intensity of the “missing” are especially high. I used to be afraid of those thoughts; I used to be shaving them off ruthlessly as something I am not supposed to have. Like: hey, girl, how dare you even think about it?! What are you saying: that you wish you have never had them?! No!!! God, no! That’s not what I was saying. I just said that I missed the time when I was a childless free girl. That's it. Missing that doesn’t mean I don’t love my kids with all my heart and that doesn’t mean I wish they were never born. Which is more, I have never said I even want these times back, have I?... A human being is a complicated organism, that’s a given. Even such polar emotions as love and hate can be perfectly entangled in an eternal dance. Those are emotions after all. We cannot control them. We can (and in fact, we’d better!) control the expressions of our emotions, however, emotions as such are outside our control.
Just let them be.
If emotions are blocked or denied it affects our physical state. For example, suppressed anger will most likely hit you with a headache or another type of ache.
We are not our emotions, but our emotions are expressions of certain parts of our personality. If we feel a certain emotion, there must have been a trigger, while understanding that trigger and why it affects us can bring us a step closer to understanding who we are.
I cannot stress it strong enough: it is OK to feel different emotions! Moreover, it is perfectly OK to feel polar emotions about certain subjects, especially if those subjects are complex and multifaceted. Feeling different emotions doesn’t make us good or bad; it makes us alive.
What is also important to stress is that we frequently misinterpret our emotions. It might sound strange but think about it for a moment. Can you always tell fear from anger? What about disgust from jealousy? ➡️➡️➡️

22/12/2019

Usually, I write about art for Artlaw.club platform, but there my articles tackle art law or art market-related topics. This time I just want to write a philosophical, “thinking-out-loud” discussion piece. (Besides, with less of an article-straightness and more of a blog-post frivolity.) So… Art. I guess everyone by now knows of Maurizio Cattelan’s “banana duct-taped to the wall” (a.k.a. “Comedian”). [ 732 more words ]
http://familylifeceo.com/2019/12/22/it-is-a-mad-mad-world-of-art/

Usually, I write about art for Artlaw.club platform, but there my articles tackle art law or art market-related topics. This time I just want to write a philosophical, “thinking-out-loud”…