"I can resist everything", wrote Oscar Wilde, "except temptation". What is it that makes a painting so attractive, so irresistible? In this collection of essays, Dominic van den Boogerd writes with passion about the exhibitions he has seen, the painters he has spoken with, and the talks by artists that he has organised as the director of De Ateliers in Amsterdam. About the pleasures and pitfalls of painting, forbidden favourites and the flirtation between the art of painting and other muses.

‘Then, Now, and Then’ consists of 16 films that Marijke van Warmerdam made during her stay in Rome in 2017 and subsequent visits to the city. All the films are loops, and most last no longer than a few minutes. They portray life on the street as the artist takes us on a walk through the city. Distance and proximity, visibility and invisibility, movement and rotation alternate as the films show how the dynamism of the Baroque lives on in today’s Rome. With her keen eye for abstract image...