Books: The Supermodel And The Brillo Box

(Drivebycuriosity) - Contemporary art is full of surprises and the market is booming. Paintings by Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Francis Bacon and other top stars are selling at auctions worldwide for more than $50 billion dollars.

The book "The Supermodel and the Brillo Box: Back Stories and Peculiar Economics from the World of Contemporary Art" by Don Thompson describes this world (amazon). I learned a lot there, but I also had much fun. The book is written in an amusing style and it is spiced with a lot of facts and funny anecdotes.

The author, who calls himself an economist and contemporary art enthusiast, describes precisely the world of art collectors, artists, auction houses and galleries. Thompson sees the universe of contemporary art through the lens of a market economist, "puzzled by the alchemy that causes a Warhol to be valued at $63 million rather than $5 million or even $100,000." He explains the peculiar economy of the art market, illustrated with a lot of success stories and flops.

 

                       Innovation & Shock

What is driving the market? "Beautiful or not, the central characteristic of twenty-first-century contemporary art is that traditional artists skills of composition and coloration have become secondary to originality, innovation & shock - however achieved", says Thompson.

The title of the book refers to the lifelike, nude waxwork of former actress and supermodel Stephanie Seymour which you can see on top of this post. Thomson provides not just the amusing background story to "Stephanie", he also describes - with many more examples - how strange this market functions. For instance the artist Félix González-Torres´s created 1992 an installation, called "Untitled" (Portrait of Marcel Brient): 200 pounds (90 kg) of cellophane-wrapped candy, intended to be piled in the corner of a room and consumed by guests. To avoid shipping costs from his usual candy supplier in Chicago the artist purchased from a local store. Estimated at $4 to $6 million, the installation sold for $4.4 million.

I enjoyed Thompson`s well written reports about auctions, for instance of Takashi Murakami`s 1997 "Miss ko2", a 6-foot (1,8 m) tall fiberglass sculpture of a big-breasted cocktail waitress, a high-heeled secret agent character from a popular Japanese animated cartoon; "hammered down for 46.8 million".

The author delivers amusing and elaborated portraits of mega-star artists like Banksy, Damien Hirst, Ai Weiwei, Takashi Murakami and dedicates a whole chapter to Andy Warhol´s factory and their "products". He describes the complex issue of authentication of "Warhols" by the "Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board", which accepted sometimes work, which is not the work by Andy Warhol, but which is signed, dedicated and dated by him. But Thompson also writes about artists who had risen like a comet and fell out of favor again.

We also get introduced to famous and important art collectors who have strong influence on the market, the prices and the reputation of certain artists. And he describes the competition between the powerful auction houses Sotheby´s, Christie`s and Phillips and the struggle between the auctioneers on the one hand and Gagosian and other art dealers (art galleries) on the other hand. Furthermore he explains how auctions and other marketing strategies function and highlights the growing importance of Art Basel, Frieze and other art fairs. In addition Thompson outlines the globalization of the art market, its rapid growth in China and its expansion to Abu Dhabi and Quatar which both influence demand and prices worldwide

"The Supermodel......." is entertaining and inspiring. Recommended for art lovers, broad minded economists and everyone who is interested how the complicated world around is functioning.
 

Contemporary Art: Polish Avant-Garde @ Gallery Gratin New York

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Manhattan´s East Village is a
cluster of dives and fast food places, but there are also some ambitious art galleries. At the tiny Gallery Gratin on Avenue B I discovered an exhibition with paintings by Aleksandra Sidor. The show was called "Test Drive" (ocula.com ).

 

Even though these paintings are very rough & anatomical I was impressed by their power & boldness. The artist`s website refers to Polish avant-garde (aleksandrasidor ). But let the images speak for themselves.

To be continued

Politics: How Liberal Are American Liberals ?

( Drivebycuriosity) - Words have sometimes different meanings in Europe and in the USA. This holds true for the word liberal. In Europe the term stands for liberty and for individual freedom. European liberals are inspired by Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek & Milton Friedman. Margaret Thatcher was a liberal.

European liberals believe in private property, free speech and self-determination. They don`t trust strong governments, instead they believe in competition and free markets. European liberals endorse low taxes and they disfavor regulation.

The word liberal has a very different meaning in the US. There it stands for the Democratic Party and her supporters. American liberals care less about individual freedom, self-determination and private property. They don´t believe in markets and they don´t trust corporations. Liberals in America prefer strong governments which have the mandate to regulate and to control almost everything. American liberals support high taxes and they endorse taking money from the rich.

Nevada - home of Las Vegas - is maybe the most liberal US state in an European sense. Nevada has relatively low taxes and less regulation then the majority of the US states (regulation). Nevada´s citizens - and visitors - enjoy a lot personal freedom, they are permitted to gamble, to purchase weed, to sell and to buy sex. In the contrary New York State, which belongs to the most liberal states in the US sense, has relative high taxes & strong regulations.

American liberals stand on the left side of the political spectrum. Many leading American liberals support socialist systems and even dictatorships. Liberal Senator Bernie Sanders declared: “These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger" (sanders.senate.gov). Former New York`s mayor Bill de Blasio, another liberal, was an advocate of “democratic socialism" and admirer of of Nicaragua’s Sandinista party (observer  nytimes). De Blasio declared “government must focus on the needs of families, must be the protector of neighborhoods and must guard the people from the enormous power of moneyed interests" (observer). And even former President Barack Obama visited Cuba during his presidency and showed his sympathies for the regime.

The majority of the US news papers and online media sites belong to the liberal camp, including New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Atlantic Magazine, The New Yorker and others. Many liberal journalist have an anti-capitalism stance and are obsessed with alleged failures of corporations. Hollywood, a billion dollar industry, produces movies which are usually anti-business, anti-corporation and demonize capitalism. Actor & director Sean Penn, a liberal Hollywood star, described the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a Robin Hood of sorts, a revolutionary wonder (foxnews  google). Liberal movie director Michael Moore is also a supporter of the socialist regimes in Cuba & Venezuela (Moore). Liberal American university professors still teach socialist ideas (mises.org). No wonder that the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University celebrated the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx`s birthday (carnegie  academia).

PS On top of this post I use a map I found on Wikipedia which summarizes US election results since 2004. States where the "liberals" won all 4 elections are deep-blue ( wikimedia).  

Science Fiction: Annalee Newitz`s Autonomous

 (Drivebycuriosity) -  Nobody knows how the future will be, but it is fascinating to speculate about it. That is what good science fiction does, making plausible assumptions. Annalee Newitz, the writer of the novel "Autonomous", does a gut job (amazon). She describes a plausible world in the early 21st century, shaped by biotech, artificial intelligence (AI) & the Internet of things. 

The book focuses on the conflict between the pharma industry, who is defending her monopolies and patents, and the drug pirates, who create cheap copies to cater those who can not afford the expensive medicine. The plot follows Jan,  a drug pirate, who discovered that one of her re-egineered drugs has deadly side effects and tries to fix the problem. She  - and her pirate colleagues - are hunted by a ruthless agent and a military robot who are working for the pharma industry, which leads to a deadly conflict (I won`t tell more, this is a spoiler free blog).

The plot is plausible & entertaining. Newitz spiced her story with a lot of knowledge & science as you can expect from good sci-fi and blends it with wild action. I enjoyed the funny robots - which remind me of Stanislaw Lem`s robot fairy tales - and the hilarious  erotics & romance scenes.

Contemporary Art: Adrian Ghenie`s Brave New World @ Pace Gallery, New York

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Adrian Ghenie ((born 1977, Romania) ) belongs to the rising stars of contemporary art world and is one of my favorite painters. I noticed his works first at a Christie`s auction in May 2015 (driveby). I indulge into his generous play with colors and his humor. 

In  2017 I reported about a Ghenie show @ Pace Gallery in Manhattan´s Chelsea district ( driveby). The  prestigious art dealer has now another Adrian Ghenie exhibition (through December 22 pacegallery). The show is called "The Brave New World".

 

Throwing Soup On Masterpieces Reduces World Climate

 

The new paintings seem to be even more extreme and avant-garde. I have no idea what the artist wants to tell us. I put my favorite image on top of this post. I call it "It is a well known fact that throwing tomato soup on masterpieces reduces the world climate". This really happened, some climate activist threw soup an a Van Gogh painting (theguardian )

 

Above follows "Seeing Biden on TV again causes me nausea". Maybe the artist chose another politician, there are so many.

Above and below are more inspirations for funny titles. It`s up to you

 

 

 

To be continued

Economics: Why Is Amazon Called A Monopoly?

(Drivebycuriosity) -  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), America´s mighty antitrust agency, filed a massive law suit against Amazon (172 pages ). The authority claims that Amazon is a monopoly and stifles emerging competition ( ftc.gov vox.com).

The word "monopoly" combines the Greek terms "mónos", meaning "single" or "alone" with the word "pōleîn", meaning "to sell" (wikipedia ). Economists use the term "monopoly" when there is just one seller (the monopolist) and there are no competitors.

Here are the facts: In the third quarter 2023 Amazon`s online stores advanced just 7% Y-o-Y , while Walmart`s e-commerce segment expanded 24% in the US and 15% worldwide, obviously eating Amazon`s market share, at least part of it (amazon  cnbc  digitalcommerce). The E-commerce platform Shopify boosted her gross merchandise volume (the total volume of merchandise sold on the platform) by 22%, rebutting the claim that "Amazon stifles emerging competition" ( cnbc). 

The FTC law suit also ignores innovative newcomers ("emerging competition") who are aggressively entering the highly competitive market. In September the Chinese online service TikTok launched its e-commerce shop, called TikTok Shop, in the U.S. "in an effort to translate the app’s cultural relevance among young consumers to sales" ( apnews). More than 200,000 sellers have already registered for the TikTok Shop!

And the Chinese shopping app Temu is rapidly gaining ground (retailbrew ). CNBC reports: Since the Chinese shopping app launched in the U.S. in September 2022, it has become the number one e-commerce app in the country, with downloads skyrocketing 50x from 600,000 to 30 million in just one quarter, according to Bernstein analysts. In contrast, Amazon’s downloads have dropped off a cliff, falling 40% in a year. Known for wild discounts and dirt-cheap prices that severely undercut Amazon’s, Temu has ratcheted up its ad spend to infiltrate the American consumer, set to spend an estimate $2 billion in marketing in 2023" ( cnbc). Temu’s parent company PDD Group said revenue rose by 94% to 68.84 billion yuan ($9.62 billion) in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from a year ago ( cnbc).

FTC chair Lina Khan lives apparently in a parallel universe where only Amazon sells online. The rapid growth of Amazon challengers indicates a healthy competition. Amazon is far away from becoming a monopoly.  The FTC does not understand that Amazon`s success is inspiring competition - not stifling. 

In the year 1995, when Jeff Bezos started Amazon, the company was the only one who sold online. Amazon was a monopoly - for a very short time. Soon copy cats appeared - animated by Amazon´s success. They all want a piece of Amazon`s pie.   

Over the years the number of other online sellers, the competitors, has been swiftly climbing. Amazon survived - and could continue her growth - because the management has been been obsessed with efficiency, cost cutting and delivering goods cheap, fast & reliably.

Amazon`s success story inspired myriads of copycats to offer similar services, a gain for the consumers. Amazon and their competitors have been constructing networks of huge fulfillment centers which are very efficient and save a lot of costs. The competition with Amazon inspired Walmart, Target and many other retailers to be more efficient and to curb their prices as well. The tough competition with Amazon forces other retailers to sell at relatively low prices.   

If the Khan wins "Amazon could be subject to penalties up to being forced to break up into smaller companies to handle its separate lines of business" (vox.com ).
 

 

                        Based On Ideology

The FTC Amazon law suit is not based on facts but on ideology ( drivebycuriosity). The FTC, lead by chair Khan, Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya & Rebecca Slaughter, represents a Marxist ideology, explained former FTC-Commissioner & Khan colleague Christine S. Wilson (ftc.gov ). According to Wilson the FTC leadership tries to replace the market process of supply and demand by a continuously regulated environment. Wilson calls the FTC´s antitrust enforcement "a politicized exercise that serves as a tool of oppression".

Joe Biden - and his protege Khan - hate Amazon because it is big and successful - and more popular than the President. I can buy an incredible array of goods through Amazon at low prices, delivered to my door within two days or less. The Khan wants to stop this.

 

Books: What We Could Learn From English History

 (Drivebycuriosity) - I like to read about history. There is so much to learn. "The English And Their History" by Robert Tombs, which fills 1074 pages, has so much valuable information which could be used even today (amazon).

Just some highlights of so many:

- After the demise of the Romans (about 400 AD) England needed around 600 years to come back to a kind of organization & civilization.

- Before 1100 AD England was vulnerable to many invasions, including the Romans, Vikings & the French. But the French invasion (1066 by William the Conqueror ) was the last the island suffered.

- In the begin of the second millennium England had mostly a French culture, people spoke French & the English kings lived mostly in France.

- England developed very slowly into a democracy by gradually reducing the power of kings & queens, starting with the Magna Carta (1215). So England could avoid the bloody & messy revolutions France and many other European countries suffered.

- The   bubonic plague (1348 Black Death ) raised living standards of the survivors significantly because a reduced workforce caused higher wages and the diminished population lowered the demand for food and cut food prices.

 - In the middle of the 19th century England adapted to free trade which reduced import & food prices and raised so standard of living. Free trade also supported economic growth.

- Contrary to a common belief the industrial revolution did not cause poverty and slums. Instead it created jobs & raised incomes and helped so England to adapt to a sudden population explosion caused by a better health care.

-  Margaret Thatcher, who had saved nation from immanent collapse, was accused by her many enemies, even inside her party, that she had maliciously ravaged a harmonious and humane society and was kicked out of office by the ungrateful Tories.

Conclusion: In the recent 1000 years England had a round trip from being a not very important island to a global empire and back to not very important island. But those "who have lived in England since 1945 have been among the luckiest people in the existence of Homo Sapiens, rich, peaceful and healthy."