Art Market: Tidbits From Spring Auctions 2024 @ Christie`s New York

 (Drivebycuriosity) - It´s auction season again. Last weekend the global auction houses started their spring auctions in New York City. As usual my wife and I went their to see their huge galleries. 

 

We began with Christie´s in Manhattan´s midtown. They had galleries for their Marquee Week, separated in 21st Century Sale, the 20th Century Evening Sale and the Post War & Contemporary Art Day Sale plus some amazing collections (christies). 

We where overwhelmed by quantity and quality of the displayed works. Showing all the gems of this show would go beyond the capacity of the blog, so I just display some of my favorites, a very subjective selection as usual. On top of this post you can see Andy Warhol`s "Double Mona Lisa".

 

On top of this paragraphy you can see Lisa Brice`s "Reclining Figure (Case)" & Christina Quarles`"Don't They Know? It's the End of the World".

 

Above follow Sterling Ruby`s "SP113" & Albert Oehlen`s "Understanding".

 

There where 2 paintings by Mark Tansey, who belongs to my favorite artists. Above his "Archive".

 

 

Above follows his "Mont Sainte-Victoire #1". On the first glance the lower half looks like a mirror image from the upper half, but actually the lower half shows a different scene. So I post the original image followed by the lower half inverted.

 

Above you can see Chloe Wise´s "I Have no Hate, I'm a Namasté Person".
  

 

And last but not least I display Martin Wong`s "Portrait of Mikey Piñero at Ridge Street and Stanton" plus a detail shot.

To be continued

Science Fiction: The Pleasure Of Reading More Than 900 Pages Arthur C.Clarke - The Complete Short Stories

(Drivebycuriosity) -  Arthur C. Clarke belongs to the writers who defined science fiction in the 20th century. He was not just a star, his mind was a whole galaxy filled with countless innovative and surprising ideas. I had much fun reading the more than 100 short stories he created in his 7 decades spanning writing career, which are amassed in "The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke" ( amazon). The tales are chronological sorted, showing the development of the author. 

Mentioning all the gems of this collection would go beyond the capacity of this blog, so I just highlight the stories which impressed me most.

There are at least two must reads: "The Nine Billion Names of God" (page 417-423). The plot maybe not based on pure science, by the tale is philosophical, crisp & apocalyptic - and stays in the mind for a long time.

"The Star" (517-522). The very short piece - based on history & religion - is dark, maybe blasphemous, and   inspired by cosmology & physics.

"The Wall of Darkness" (104-119) is philosophical and influenced by cutting edge physics. Ted Chiang used a similar basic idea for this story "Tower of Babylon".

"Time`s Arrow" (225-236). Some archaeologists discover in the desert much more than they had expected and wanted.

"A Walk in the Dark" (236-244 ) - a creepy horror story set on a remote planet.

"Silence Please" (244-253). About serious side effects of noise reduction - inspired by the laws of entropy.

"Travel by wire" (page 1-5). Long time before "Beam me up, Scotty" Clarke wrote about teletransportation, with a lot of humor.

"Technical Error" (56-69 ). A huge short circuit creates a spectacular phenomena.

"Hide and Seek" (160-169). A thriller about a man who stranded on a tiny moon and is hunted by space ship.

"Breaking Strain" (169-191 ). A psychological thriller about 2 men on a damaged space ship, where there is just enough oxygen for one of them to survive.

"All the Time in the World" (407-417). A funny apocalyptic tale.

"The Deep Range" (482-489 ). About protecting dolphins with the help of high-tech.

"Who`s there?" (693-697). About a man who makes some strange experience after leaving his spaceship in a spacesuit.

"A Meeting with Medusa" (894-928). About an exploration of the outer atmosphere of Jupiter. An adventure based on a lot of science, especially physics, chemistry & evolution.

Clarke was not only a talented story teller, he also was a scientist and used his deep and profound knowledge to interweave physics, engineering, evolution, cosmology and more science into exciting tales. I was thrilled, amused and learned a lot by reading this collection.

Many of his stories were visionary. In the year 1949 he already described the complex physics & technologies for space flights ("Breaking Strain"). He also inspired the use of satellites for global TV and data communication.

Clarke claimed that "it is now clear that the Third Reich´s attempt to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, which was too late to have any major influence on World War II, sapped its resources and contributed to the Allied victory"

"As long as science advance, as long a mathematics discovers incredible worlds where twice two would never dream of equaling four: so new ideas will come tumbling into the mind of anyone who will let his thoughts wander, passport in hand, along the borders of possibility"

In his foreword Clarke declared: "The science fiction writer does a great service to the community. He encourages in his readers flexibility of mind, readiness to accept and even welcome change - in one word, adaptability."  

The collection is a must read for anyone interested in science fiction and belongs into any well sorted library of contemporary fiction.

Contemporary Art: Paintings Of Porcelain Figurines @ Half Gallery New York

(Drivebycuriosity) - Manhattan´s East Village is a
cluster of dives and fast food places, but there is at least one art gallery which has frequently interesting exhibitions: Half Gallery. They display now works by Czech artist Adéla Janská (halfgallery). The show is called "Naked as Paper".

 

The paintings I display in this post are based on porcelain figurines. The press release explains that "Adéla buys figurines from Bavarian and Bohemian factories in Ditmar- Urbach Teplice and Horní Slavkov, which imbue the pieces with a totemic specificity".

 

To be continued

 

Economics: Antitrust - The Wrath Of The Khan

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), America`s mighty antitrust authority, filed a massive law suit against Amazon. FTC Chair Lina Khan claims that the corporation is a monopolist and stifles emerging competition (ftc.gov vox.com yahoo).

The Khan has a history of loathing and harassing Amazon. Back in the year 2014, when today`s FTC chair was a policy analyst at the left-of-center New America Foundation, she wrote a piece for CNN about Amazon`s conflict with French book publisher Hachett (driveby ). Amazon dared to reduce book prices and tried to sell e-books cheaper than printed books (no costs for paper, printing, storing & transporting). The Khan sided with the book publishers, who insisted on their rights as monopolists to set book prices, and complained about Amazon`s "brute exercise of power" and suggested to "drastically curb Amazon’s power" ( cnn).  

In 2017 the Khan, then a law school student, wrote a famous paper: "Amazon`s Antitrust Paradox" ( yalelawjournal). She predicted that Amazon will become a monopolist and  complained that Amazon´s prices are "too low" (!), which would drive competitors out of business and would hinder potential competitors to emerge. The Khan ignored history, economics and the continuously growing number of Amazon competitors ( reason   yalelawjournal  driveby).

Since then the Khan continued her attacks on Amazon. She claimed publicly that the corporation is "guilty of antitrust violations and should be broken up." ( wsj.com). In 2018, still a law student, the Khan presented her Amazon critique before the Stigler Center, a left-leaning organization ( StiglerCenter). Khan´s Amazon obsession impressed obviously President Biden, who called her Chair of the powerful FTC in 2021.

 

(twitter ) 

 

Today`s law suit is the crown of the Khan crusade and based on lies and economic illiteracy. Amazon is neither a monopolist, neither it stifles emerging competition. In the fourth quarter 2023 Amazon`s online stores advanced just 8% YoY, while Walmart`s e-commerce segment expanded 17% YoY in the US and 23% worldwide, obviously eating Amazon`s market share, at least part of it (amazon cnbc). Amazon is also losing market share to Shopify. The E-commerce platform boosted her gross merchandise volume (the total volume of merchandise sold on the platform) by 23% YoY, rebutting the claim that "Amazon stifles emerging competition" ( cnbc). 

The Khan also ignores innovative newcomers ("emerging competition") who are aggressively entering the highly competitive e-commerce market (economist). Last 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 npr.org). And the Chinese shopping app Temu, known from their Super Bowl commercial, is rapidly gaining ground (retailbrew ). 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).

Amazon is also losing market share to Shein, "the ultra-cheap fast-fashion app" (nymag). New York Magazine claims that "Shein Found Amazon’s Weakness". Amazon already responded to the new competition and was forced "to dramatically decrease the commissions it takes on cheap clothing “ (nymag ).

Khan`s dislike of Amazon made her to a kind of Jeanne d'Arc of the left-wing and gets her support from Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren & President Biden. It is clear that the Khan wants to destroy the Amazon we know. 

The Khan attacks are not surprising.  The FTC Chair belongs to a movement called Neo-Brandeisians (after Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 1916-1939), who are working on a fundamental change of America´s economic structure and try to expand the role of the government in the U.S. economy significantly ( pbwt.com dailyjournal promarket reason). 

Since Lina Khan leads the FTC the authority represents a Marxist ideology, explained former FTC-Commissioner & Khan colleague Christine S. Wilson (ftc.gov ). According to Wilson the Neo-Brandeisians, who are now in control of the FTC, try 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".

The Khan tries to gain control over one of America´s largest corporations and to be in charge of Amazon`s business. The FTC Chair wants to tell Amazon what it can do and what not, how much the corporation charges their customers and how they deal with the business partners (nationalreview ).

Thanks to Amazon`s sheer size and efficiency the company can offer a wider selection of products, faster delivery and lower prices than competitors. The Khan treats these advantages as unfair (to competitors) and wants to restrict them. If her law suits succeeds Amazon may have to cancel Prime and customers will have to pay more and will have to wait longer till their orders arrive (  datainnovation). Millions of small businesses, who cooperate with Amazon, will lose an efficient platform to sell and connect with consumers ( cato).

The Khan attack throws already a lot sand into the gears of a successful company, which belongs to the engines of the US economy. The law suit reduces Amazon`s ability to further innovate. It is already occupying management capacities and slowing decision processes - making Amazon`s business more complicated and costly. If corporations get punished for being efficient and for keeping costs low, it will slow economic growth, raise price level and reduce living standards of low income households who depend on purchasing cheap goods.

The consumers are the losers. They have to bear these costs by paying higher prices and are getting reduced selection and quality of goods & services.

  

Economics: Are Interest Rates Really Too High?

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - There is a lot ado about the Federal Reserve interest rates. Many claim that they are too high and might cause the next recession. Are the critics right?.

According to the textbooks high interest rates slow the economy because they discourage borrowing and investing. Do they? This post uses statistics by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ( fred.stlouisfed).

 

 

On top of this post you can see the growth of the money supply in the recent years. Money growth ended April 2022 and the money supply dropped in the following months, partly as a response to the interest rate hikes of the Federal Reserve (image above this paragraph). It bottomed October 2023 - since then the money supply is rising again - and the rise is accelerating! (image below).

 

 ( source)

The Federal Reserve also reports that the volume of bank credits jumped in the recent months, in spite of the "high" interest rates (image below). The borrowed money lands on the accounts of the bank customers and adds to the money supply (the sum of currency in circulation and short term accounts at public banks).

 

 ( source)

Credit card loans are also climbing swiftly, withstanding the interest rates. These payments land on the bank accounts of sellers who accept credit cards and are driving monetary growth as well (image below).

 

 ( source)

. 

These numbers fit to other solid economic data, like the steady growth of the job market and the continuous rise of the GDP. The numbers may also explain the stubbornly high inflation rates.

The Fed rates are much higher than in the recent past - and they feel too high. But none of the economic indicators signal tight money - rather the contrary.

Contemporary Art: Emotional Moonscapes @ Gallery Perrotin New York

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - The French/American Perrotin on Orchard Street belongs to my favorite art galleries (perrotin ). I often spot amazing shows there. Recently I reported about their show with works by GaHee Park ( driveby).

 

This post is about a show with works by Oslo based artist Jason Boyd Kinsella, called "Emotional Moonscapes" ( leaflet). The images are called "psychological portraits".  

To be continued

Science Fiction: Tales Of Pirx The Pilot By Stanlislaw Lem

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - Stanislaw Lem is maybe the most underrated science fiction author. Most might only know his novel "Solaris" from the film adaptions by Andrei Tarkovsky (1972 imdb) & Steven Soderbergh (2002 imdb). His oeuvre covers - beyond scifi - futurology (no fiction), philosophy, psychology, crime novels, satyrical works and much more.

Lem´s "Tales of Pirx the Pilot" contains 5 short stories & novellas which follow a young man, named Pirx (amazon ). The protagonist is a dreamer, full of hopes & ideas, but has a weak self esteem and is not well regarded by his superiors. On the other side he is mentally strong, cunning and he never gives up. So he survives very challenging situations caused by technical problems, physical phenomena and other calamities.

Lem interwove physics, engineering and cosmology into thrilling adventure stories, spiced with humor, psychology and a bit of philosophy. Highly recommended.