Photography: Park Avenue

 

(Drivebycuriosity) -  Manhattan´s Park Avenue does not have the highest or newest skyscrapers of the world. But the street is still a beauty.

 

I am happy to present here some pics I took on a recent hike along one of Manhattan`s finest.

 

I like the combination of geometric shapes & colors at around 4.30 pm. 

Stay tuned.

Art Market: The Now @ Sotheby´s Fall 2023

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - It`s November again and the world`s largest auction houses had their annual huge fall auctions in Manhattan. This post focuses on the gallery for the Now auction, focusing on art executed in the last 20 years @ Sotheby`s ( sothebys).  

Quality & Quantity of the displayed art works were overwhelming and admission was free. I display here just my favorites, a very subjective selection as usual.

 

The post starts with Jenny Saville´s fleshy and wall filling "Shift" (typical for her) followed by Hernan Bas`s wild and exotic "Night Flight or Midnight Migration, or My Merry Way".

 

Above this paragraph are more gorgeus paintings: "Flight into Egypt" by Emma Webster plus Flora Yukhnovich´s "It`s better down, where it`s wetter".   Wow! 

                        Love Your Neighbor

 

Paintings by South African artist Marlene Dumas` always catche my eyes. Above her "Love Your Neighbor". It´s hot there.

 

Mohammed Sami`s: "The Praying Room" seems to be inspired by German expressionism. The artist is born in Baghdad and lives and works in London.

Neo Rauch`s surreal compositions belong to my favorites. Sotheby´s showed his "Monumental Item". 

Lukas Duwenhögger`s: "Rezalet (Impertinence)" also tells a complex story, reminding me of Evelyn Waugh.

 

                         Sid Vicious Arrested 

Beware of the cat: "No Bare Back, After Brace" by Lisa Brace.

 

 

"Sid Vicious Arrested, Chelsea Hotel" by Elizabeth Peyton. The dark side of Punk

 

"Full Frontal (Purble, Blue and Red)" by Loie Hollowell. Mesmerizing!

Last but not least Julie Mehretu´s monumental "Walkers with the Dawn and Morning"

 

Enjoy!

Art Market: Contemporary Art @ Sotheby`s Fall 2023

 (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). Quality & Quantity of the displayed art works were overwhelming and admission was free. I display here just my favorites, a very subjective selection as usual.

Above you can see "Head Piece (Black)" by Simone Leigh and "Abstraktes Bild" by Gerhard Richter, one of the many.

 

                         Abstract Orgies

 

Above follows Cecily Brown´s powerful "One Touch of Venus". Cecily Brown is a mistress of abstract and camouflaged orgies.

 

Above you can see Cristina Banban`s funny & sexy "Sentadita De Pensaba". The colors look like Disney movies, if they would make flicks for adults.

 

Then follow "Untitled" by Martin Kippenberger, one of the German avantgarde painters & "Long Night" by Mohammed Sami, who is born in Baghdad and lives and works in London.

                          Fruit Baskets

 

 

Above two bulky works by Fernando Botero: "Desnudo Ante El Espejo" & "Canasta De Frutas". In this ranking, LoL.

 Above a little collection of surreal works: George Condo`s "Existential Traveller (Girl in Blue Box); Genieve Figgis`"Lusty Ladies" & Marlene Dumas`"Against the Wall".

 

 

Last but not least: "Ladder Sun Dance" by Alice Baber & Andy Warhol´s portrait of German avantgarde artist painter "Joseph Beuys".

To be continued

 

Economics: Why Does The Price Of Oil Ignore Opec Production Cuts & The Middle East Conflict?

 (Drivebycuriosity) - The price of oil has been falling in the recent weeks. Today oil costs about as much as a year ago (charts above cnbc). 

Stagnating oil prices seem to be surprising. Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members & associates of Opec cut oil production several times in order to hike the oil price. In vain!

 

 ( source)

And pundits predicted that the ongoing war in Gaza will drive the oil price much higher which could reignite inflation ( bloomberg). Some reminded to Israel´s Yom Kippur War with Egypt in the year 1973. The conflict induced Saudi Arabia and their Opec colleagues to punish the West with an oil embargo which caused a jump in oil prices and years of recession. Not today!

I suppose that the price of oil is constrained by the tight money supply.

 

 

 ( source source )

 

It is no coincidence that monetary growth and price of oil have been moving in step in the recent 5 years (charts above). Both went up in the years 2020/21 and dropped in 2022.

As I have posted frequently in the years 2020 & 2021 the US government flooded the economy with stimulus checks in the value of trillions of dollars (American Rescue Plan), supported by massive bond purchases by the Federal Reserve (driveby ).  

The government money landed directly on the bank accounts of the Americans, blowing up the money volume M2 (bank notes & coins & deposits at banks). Milton Friedman described this as helicopter money (cato ). As a result in 2020 & 2021 the US money supply M2, the engine of the inflation, jumped 40%

The money deluge hiked suddenly the purchasing power of US companies & consumers and raised the prices of almost everything. No wonder that oil prices went up. The causal relation between money supply is known since the 16th century (quantity theory of money) and described by Copernicus and later by Milton Friedman and other monetarists (driveby ).

 

 (source )

Fortunately the inflationary money flood ended in 2022. Since November 2022 the US money supply M2 has been shrinking, curbing the purchasing power of companies & consumer. This causes a slowdown of the inflation rate and is also holding the price of oil in check. 

If the US government doesn`t cause another money flood the risk of an oil inflation is extremely low.

 

Movies: Don`t Miss Cut Bank

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - If you are into funny and dark crime flicks and subscribed to Netflix then I recommend to watch the movie "Cut Bank". Only available there through November 30!

- A couple watches a murder. This starts a chain of bloody & hilarious events. I won't tell more about the plot of the movie "Cut Bank" (this is a spoiler free blog), but you can expect there a lot of surprises and twists which make the film very enjoyable (imdb). The name refers to a remote and (usually) sleepy place in the US where the film is set.

Director Matt Shakman  & script writer Roberto Patino did a fine job. They follow the tradition of bloody, dark and goofy comedies like "Fargo" and "11:14" (imdb). Strange characters are doing bad or stupid things which brings them into trouble. Violence and funny scenes are frequently trading places.

I enjoyed the great John Malkovich as an overstrained backwater sherif and Billy Bob Thornton as local businessman and would be father in law. Oliver Platt as postal inspector "from the capital city" also was fun to watch. But the star of the movie is Michael Stuhlbarg as the inscrutable "Derby Milton", a character which will stay in the memories of his audience for a while. Unfortunately the usually lovely Teresa Palmer got constrained by her role as an extremely naive bumbling country girl who is too much obsessed with her Yahoo boyfriend. As comfort above one of her better portraits.

"Cut Bank" is one of the best black comedies of the recent years and highly recommend for connoisseurs of the genre.

Books: The Butterfly Garden

 (Drivebycuriosity) - There are sometimes grizzly media report often about young women who have been abducted and held captive for years. The novel "The Butterfly Garden" by Dot Hutchison takes this issue to a new extreme ( amazon ). A young woman, who - together with other women - has been kept in a kind of winter garden for years, is questioned by the FBI after her release (this is a spoiler free blog).

The plot is not plausible, there are too many parts which I can`t believe. But I accept the book as a satire, as a modern fairy tale in the tradition of the gory Brothers Grimm`s fairy tales and the French story about "Bluebeard" . 

The novel is certainly a horror story, but it is also a psychological study about survival under very extreme circumstances and about women who are forced to adapt  to extreme situations. Parts remind of the Stockholm Syndrome and the Patty Hearst Case. The plot kept me curious and interested in the fate of its characters till the end. But certainly not for everyone.

 

Art Market: Modern Art @ Sotheby´s Fall 2023

 

 (Drivebycuriosity) -  It`s November again and the world`s largest auction houses have their annual huge fall auctions in Manhattan. This post focuses on Modern Art  @ Sotheby`s ( sothebys)

This post opens with Alejandro Obregón`s fierce
"Barracuda" plus detail shots. Looks like an invader from another galaxy.

 

Above follows Balthus`"La Patience". Sublime erotics.

 

Above this paragraph you can see "Cascade Wall (Cave #172)" by Elaine De Kooning and "Gimnasio II" by Armando Morales.

                          Surreal Erotic

 

Above follow surreal erotic by Salvdor Dali, called "Sans Titre".

 

Innocence & elegance: "Jeune Fille Cousant" by Pierre-August Renoir & "Portrait of Mrs. Helen N. Starr" by Diego Rievera.

The Pope with the snake on his shepherd stick: Fernando Botero`s "Il Nuncio".

 

Above this paragraph you can see Andrew Wyeth`s "Winter Corn Fields"; Maximilien Lucy´s "Souvenir De Rotterdam" & Maurice De Vlaminicks` "L`Entrée Du Village".

 

Isn´t is nice? "Early Morning" by Reuven Rubin.

 

"Road #7" by Hedda Sterne & another Dali: "VIBRATIONS NUES DÉMATÉRIALISANT UN NU HABILLÉ DE VIBRATIONS SUPER-NUES"

To be continued