Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Art Market: Tidbits From Fall Auctions 2024 @ Sotheby`s New York

 


(Drivebycuriosity) -  It`s November again and the world`s largest auction houses have their annual huge fall auctions in Manhattan. This post focuses on Contemporary Art  @ Sotheby`s (sothebys ). As usual quality & quantity of the displayed art works were overwhelming and admission was free. I display here just my favorites, a very subjective selection.

 



Above you can see the wonderful "Sky for Mina" by Janaina Tschäpe (2016, casein and pastel on canvas, 78 by 91 ⅜ in) followed by Ali Banisadr`s “Aleph” (2013, oil on linen, 66 by 88 in,187.6 by 224 cm).
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Above follows the spectacular and weird “The Madhouse” by Kent Monkman (2020, 84 by 132 in. 213.4 by 335.3 cm). Angels as prison guards? Maybe in the Vatican State?
 

 


Above you can see "$8.99 Per Unit" by Sayre Gomez (2022,  acrylic on canvas, 144 by 84 in. 365.8 by 213.4 cm).
 

 



Above follows Jeff Koons`famous "Woman in Tube" (Porcelain, 23 ¾ by 36 by 27 in. 60.3 by 91.4 by 68.6 cm. Executed in 1988, this work is number 3 of an edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof). What`s going on here?

 






Above this paragraph you can see Roy Lichtenstein´s delicate nudes: "Nude with Blue Hair"; "Nude with Pyramid (Studio)"; "Nude with Yellow Pillow"; "Roommates" plus a kneeling nude. Enjoy!

 

                         Buried On Sunday

 





2 more weird images: Miriam Cahn`s “O.T.” (2017, oil on canvas, 76 ¾ by 70 ⅞ in.194.8 by 180 cm) & Pol Taburet`s “Buried on a Sunday” (2021, acrylic, oil pastel and alcohol-based paint on canvas, 63 by 78 ¾ in, .160 by 200 cm).



I love the mood in John Koch`s "Conversation-Nightlight (1954, oil on canvas). Like a scene in an old movie.


 



I also spotted a lot great modern art (late 19th century through WWII) and surrealists: Raoul Dufy`s "Nu couché L `Atelier De la Rue Jeanne DÀrc" (1942 ); Antonia Gattorno`s “Retrato De Mi Madre (1942) & “Italian Landscape (1944 ); Jean Dunand`s “Parfum”  (1927) & Lenor Fini `s “Les Stylites” (1976).





Last but not least 2 beauties: Robert Henri`s "Irish Girl"(1928) & Guy Pene Du Bois`”Diane”

To be continued


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Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Economics: Why Biden`s Antitrust Tsarina Lina Khan Needs To Be Replaced


 (Drivebycuriosity) - The election changed America´s political and economic landscapes. It seems that President Biden´s war on business will come to an end. Biden had been advertised as a moderate but short after his inauguration he initialized a fundamental left shift of America´s industrial politics and brought an activist into power: Lina Khan. 

Biden led the Senate believe that the widely unknown Khan will become just one of five Commissioners of America´s mighty antitrust authority Federal Trade Commission (FTC). But instead he announced her as Chair, giving her the power to rule one of America`s most powerful agencies. 

Biden`s protege does not have any business experience nor is she educated as an economist, but the Khan made her name by working for left-wing organizations and by a personal crusade against Amazon that made her the Joan of Arc of the progressives and is maybe the real cause for Biden`s choice (drivebycuriosity).

The FTC was founded to protect the interests of the consumers and tried to punish corporations for bad services, low quality & and too high prices (consumer welfare). Chair Khan does not care about consumers, she has other targets. She is part of the New Brandeis movement (after Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 1916-1939), who strives for a fundamental change of America´s economic structure and implies antitrust to expand the role of the government in the U.S. economy significantly ( pbwt.com dailyjournal promarket reason). Khan and her fellow Brandeisians prefer "that the government, rather than the private sector, orchestrates the functioning of the economy" ( ftc.gov). 

Biden protege Khan declared consumer interests as irrelevant. She argued - in an article for a Marxist paper - that antitrust must be reconfigured toward the redistribution of economic and political power and away from concerns regarding price (lpeproject  realclearpolicy). Since the Khan leads the FTC the authority represents a Marxist ideology, explained former FTC-Commissioner & Khan colleague Christine S. Wilson (ftc.gov ). The Brandeisans want to replace the market process of supply and demand by a continuously regulated environment where market outcomes are constantly being reviewed by bureaucrats who don`t understand economics and ignore history (truthonthemarket ).

Since taking the command of the FTC the Khan has  fundamentally changed the FTC and how America approaches competition & industrial policy ( (insidesources politico truthonthemarket twitter  marginalrevolution). The Khan claims that she has the "Rule Making Authority" and that she can decide what is & isn't "unfair competitive conduct" ( ftc.gov    twitter  uschamber ). 

Lina Khan tries to gain control over America´s largest corporations and to be in charge of their business. She wants to tell them what they can do and what not, how much they charge their customers and how they deal with their business partners (nationalreview ). The Khan follows Lenin and declared: "Market structure is deeply political. One reason is that all markets are governed by law. The structure of a market at any given time is the product of political decisions—made and not made—about how players in that market will be allowed to use their power" ( law.duke).

Since in office the FTC Chair launched a series of law suits against American corporations including Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Walmart, Altria & Illumina and has also intimidated and harassed them with a flood of inquiries. Since Twitter is owned by Elon Musk, Khan`s FTC has been orchestrating an aggressive campaign against X, formerly known as Twitter. "The agency sent more than a dozen letters to Twitter in a span of 10 weeks that contained more than 350 specific demands, thus creating a "substantial burden on the company's operations." ( npr.org judiciary  nytimes).

The purpose of these law suits and inquiries is to gain control over America´s largest corporations and to be in charge of their business ( driveby). Even though the Khan is not democratically elected, she uses her power to throw a lot sand into the gears of America´s successful companies, which belong to the engines of the US economy. Her law suits and inquiries are occupying management capacities and slowing decision processes - making business more complicated and costly and reduce their ability to further innovate. Because the Khan is punishing corporations for being efficient and for keeping costs low she is slowing economic growth, raises price level and reduces living standards of low income households who depend on purchasing cheap goods. Innovators and startups are getting discouraged when they know that strong growth will get punished.

FTC chair Khan - and her fellow Brandeisians - claim that efficiency, that leads to low prices, is unfair. She declared in an interview: “The word efficiency doesn’t appear anywhere in the antitrust statutes....  It’s not that any business practice that increases welfare or increases efficiency is fine" (promarket. ). The Brandeisians declare  that low prices destroy competition, hurt workers and ruin the environment ( vox ). 

In 2022 Lina Khan released her 5-years plan that reads like a Communist Manifest (ftc.gov ). It includes support equity for historically underserved communities, which include Black Americans, Latinos, members of religious minorities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and persons adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality. Apparently Khan`s antitrust focuses on race and income inequality (crowell ). The neglect of consumer interests is also announced in Khan`s Strategic Goal 2: "The FTC’s efforts to prevent and police unfair methods of competition focus on preventing anticompetitive mergers and business practices through enforcement". Apparently the Khan wants to protect competitors which leads to less competition and will harm the consumer.


It is not surprising that the Khan still works with far-left groups and grants them influence on America`s antitrust politics, like the Law and Political Economy (LPE), an organization that claims to “work to understand the relationship between market supremacy and racial, gender, and economic injustice; to articulate the relationship between capitalism and devaluation of social and ecological reproduction; and to explore the distinctive ways that law gives shape to and legitimates neoliberal capitalism, ranging from dynamics of financialization to the relation between the carceral state and capitalism” ( based-politics). 

A recent Staff Report of the House Committee On Oversight And Accountability reports that Lina Khan conspired with foreign powers against American interests ( oversight.house.gov): "The FTC has spent taxpayer dollars and used its resources to ensure EU regulations opposed by the U.S. business community are effectuated and protected. This is evidenced in the
FTC’s involvement in the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA)".
Congressman Darrel Issa accused Khan of turning the FTC into a bully that would make America less competitive (youtube ).

Khan´s war on American business has to end.



 


 


 

Saturday, November 9, 2024

Contemporary Art: Mercedes Llanos @ Amanita New York


 (Drivebycuriosity) - Manhattan´s Bowery is a tourist magnet with plenty of restaurants & bars. But the traditional street has also some interesting art galleries. One of them is Amanita, a branch of an ambitious gallery in Florence, Italy ( news.artnet). They are located where the former CGGB was, a place where I once in my tourist times watched heavy metal and punk groups.

 


Recently they showed works by Mercedes Llanos: "Te Soñé Primero" (spazioamanita ). She painted these works during her pregnancy with her first child and throughout the postpartum period.

 


I love these gorgeous paintings because of their sheer power and the flamboyance. I display here my favorites, a very subjective selection as usual.

 






To be continued

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Contemporary Art: Alexandre Lenoir`s Between Dogs And Wolves @ Almine Rech New York


(Drivebycuriosity) - Contemporary Art is full of surprises. On a recent walk on Broadway in Tribaca I discovered an ambitious gallery with a fascinating show: Gallery Almine Rech displayed works by Alexandre Lenoir. The show was called "Between Dogs And Wolves'" (alminerech ).   

 



Almine Rech is a global art power house with branches in Paris, Brussels, London, Shanghai, Monaco, Venice, Gstaad & New York (wikipedia ). Their Tribeca location is the newest in their empire. Alexandre Lenoir is a French painter born in 1992. According to the gallery his "work explores the versatility of the painted image from reworked personal photographs" ( Lenoir).

 




I was impressed by the spacious rooms and large walls that give the viewer enough scope to enjoy the exhibited art works. And I enjoyed the kind of psychedelic style of the paintings. 

On top of this post you can see "Dream house" (2024, Acrylic and tape on assembled canvas, 268 x 393.7 x 4.4 cm, 105 1/2 x 155 x 2 in). Below follow more of the works.

 









 



 

To be continued

Saturday, November 2, 2024

US Election: Scylla And Charybdis

 


(Drivebycuriosity) - The election next week will decide who rules the US in the coming four years. The choice between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump reminds me of Scylla and Charybdis. The
Greek mythology told about two monsters who were jeopardizing ships on both sides of a tight passage. Both candidates announced sweeping changes that are threatening the US economy and would hurt consumers and producers.

Vice President Harris had supported President Biden`s anti-business politics that increased the role of government and expanded the regulations, throwing sand into the delicate wheels of the economy ( driveby). No wonder that American economic growth is sluggish. 

The Liberal candidate is suspect to continue the course of the Biden-Harrisn administration. She is also "seeking to significantly raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations" writes the New York Times ( nytimes). These tax hikes will slow business and create a lot of additional headwinds for the economy, curbing economic growth again. Higher taxes will raise the costs of doing business and force the affected corporations to hike their prices. So a part of the tax hikes will be paid by the consumers. The affected companies will also invest less and hire fewer people. Fewer investments and recruitments will slow economic growth further and harm consume.

Donald Trump`s former Presidency has a mixed record. He cut taxes significantly which raised company earnings. Trump´s tax cuts encouraged investing & hiring and created a tailwind for the US consume. He also curbed regulation, especially in the banking sector, which had hold back bank lending and daunted investing.  

But Trump thwarted these positive impulses by starting a trade war against China and hiked tariffs on imports significantly. Tariffs are taxes, so higher tariffs work like higher taxes. They raise prices for imported goods and disrupt supply chains & production processes. 

Trump announced that he wants to cut taxes again but also that he plans to severe the ongoing trade war with China - and maybe also with the European Union - by massively hiking the already high tariffs on imported goods from these regions.  

An aggravated trade war could reduce company earnings and slow down investing & hiring significantly. It would also disturb production processes in the US and raise consumer prices, hitting especially low income families. The higher tariffs would be paid by the US consumers who had to pay more for imported goods. 

Tariffs are taxes on imported goods. Much higher tariffs on Chinese products would slow US economic growth and would reduce even the demand for American goods & services because the consumers have to spend more money on computers, furniture, clothing, chemicals and plenty other goods which will curtail their budgets and raise the costs for companies (marketwatch). Even the allegedly protected US automobile industry would lose because they would to have to spend more for steel and many other pre-products.

China and other countries would certainly respond to new American trade barriers and would restrict their American imports as well. If Trump really goes into a full fledged trade war, American companies could lose their oversea markets. Beijing could replace Boeing orders by Airbus, halt purchases of US cars and iPhones and reduce the massive imports of US pork, corn, soybean & maize. According to Bloomberg US multinational corporations - including Starbucks & McDonald`s - have more than $228 billion invested in China (bloomberg).  Many US companies & farmers would lose customers and would be forced to fire employees. Many Americans would lose jobs, income & purchasing power.

Imports from China, including apparel, hardware, furniture and toys, would got more expensive, hurting families with low incomes. Higher prices for many imported products, including Aluminum & steel, will harm US car producers and other industries, which rely on cheap primary products, and suck money out of consumer`s wallets, reducing the purchases of US products. US farmers will lose markets because China might less corn, wheat & fewer pork from the US as a retaliation. The trade war will also disconnect complicated supply chains. As a result the trade war would destroy a lot American incomes & jobs.

History gives a warning. In the year 1930 the US implied high tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods (Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act) which provoked countermeasures by England & France. As a result global trade imploded and the recession became the Great Depression (smoot-hawley).

While many Americans are afraid of Russians, Chinese and other "evil foreign powers", the real danger lurks at home in Washington DC.