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Today's Features Article Archive. September-October, 2008
October, 2008
New York City: Chelsea Exhibits
Recognized as one of the most enigmatic artists of the 2nd half of the 20th century, Jean Dubuffet's entree into the architectural dimension of his work developed during his Hourloupe period (1962 -74). PaceWildenstein presents (October 10 through November 8, 2008) Dubuffet Monumental Sculpture from the Hourloupe Cycle, including Welcome Parade, initially conceived for the opening of the National Gallery of Art's East Wing an realized and exhibited for the first time in this gallery.
Welcome Parade, the largest work on view in Dubuffet: Monumental Sculpture from the Hourloupe Cycle, is composed of five polyurethane paint on epoxy figures: L'Accuillant, Cherche-Aubine, L'incivil, Redingoton, and Le Facetieux, and measures over 13'x27'x16'. Originally conceived during a long collaboration with architect I.M.Pei, who was in charge of designing the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the work was a response to the offer to "place an entire room at the disposal of the artist so that he might display his work there on the walls, ceiling and floor." During the early 1970s when this project was in discussion, Dubuffet, in the tradition of his Hourloupe cycle, would also realize and install Groupe de quatre arbes, a permanent public commission situated at the Chase Manhattan Plaza in New York and Coucou Bazaar, his celebrated "animated painting" consisting of costumed actors and large-scale Hourloupe works, would be performed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Galerie Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris on the occasions of his retrospectives at those institutions in 1973.
Jean Dubuffet (b.1901 - d. 1985), a student of the Academie Julian in Paris, left school in 1918 to pursue an independent form of art education. He developed an appreciation for literature, philosophy, linguistics, and music. ...He returned to painting full-time in 1942. Shortly thereafter, he started exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. Dubuffet sought artistic authenticity not within the confines of formal European tradition, but rather he looked to those on the margins of art: the socially isolated and to a limited degree, the art of children. Influenced by those perspectives on art, Dubuffet incorporated similar visual language into his own work. He referred to this painting style as "Art Brut." He coined the term, a predecessor to outsider art, in the late 1940.
PaceWildenstein gallery located at 534 W. 25th Street, New York City.
Silverstein Photography is pleased to announce Poetic Realism, an exhibition of new works with their sketches from photographer Joel-Peter Witkin.
Witkin's reference of art history's traditional iconography serves as a backdrop to his subjects as well as a basis to his ideas. Witkin's fascination with mortal sublimation draws him towards his "sitters" who in turn shed light upon the extremities of physical morbidity, deformation, and destruction.
Joel Peter Witkin's work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada, the Guggenheim Bilbao, the Moscow House of Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, ARCO Madrid, the Israel Museum, and the Whitney Museum...His work included in numerous collections including: the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the George Eastman House, the Getty Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Bruce Silverstein gallery located at 535 W. 24 Street, New York City.
Art Auction. Phillips de Pury. New York
New York City: Chelsea Exhibits
Recognized as one of the most enigmatic artists of the 2nd half of the 20th century, Jean Dubuffet's entree into the architectural dimension of his work developed during his Hourloupe period (1962 -74). PaceWildenstein presents (October 10 through November 8, 2008) Dubuffet Monumental Sculpture from the Hourloupe Cycle, including Welcome Parade, initially conceived for the opening of the National Gallery of Art's East Wing an realized and exhibited for the first time in this gallery.
Welcome Parade, the largest work on view in Dubuffet: Monumental Sculpture from the Hourloupe Cycle, is composed of five polyurethane paint on epoxy figures: L'Accuillant, Cherche-Aubine, L'incivil, Redingoton, and Le Facetieux, and measures over 13'x27'x16'. Originally conceived during a long collaboration with architect I.M.Pei, who was in charge of designing the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the work was a response to the offer to "place an entire room at the disposal of the artist so that he might display his work there on the walls, ceiling and floor." During the early 1970s when this project was in discussion, Dubuffet, in the tradition of his Hourloupe cycle, would also realize and install Groupe de quatre arbes, a permanent public commission situated at the Chase Manhattan Plaza in New York and Coucou Bazaar, his celebrated "animated painting" consisting of costumed actors and large-scale Hourloupe works, would be performed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Galerie Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris on the occasions of his retrospectives at those institutions in 1973.
Jean Dubuffet (b.1901 - d. 1985), a student of the Academie Julian in Paris, left school in 1918 to pursue an independent form of art education. He developed an appreciation for literature, philosophy, linguistics, and music. ...He returned to painting full-time in 1942. Shortly thereafter, he started exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. Dubuffet sought artistic authenticity not within the confines of formal European tradition, but rather he looked to those on the margins of art: the socially isolated and to a limited degree, the art of children. Influenced by those perspectives on art, Dubuffet incorporated similar visual language into his own work. He referred to this painting style as "Art Brut." He coined the term, a predecessor to outsider art, in the late 1940.
PaceWildenstein gallery located at 534 W. 25th Street, New York City.
Silverstein Photography is pleased to announce Poetic Realism, an exhibition of new works with their sketches from photographer Joel-Peter Witkin.
Witkin's reference of art history's traditional iconography serves as a backdrop to his subjects as well as a basis to his ideas. Witkin's fascination with mortal sublimation draws him towards his "sitters" who in turn shed light upon the extremities of physical morbidity, deformation, and destruction.
Joel Peter Witkin's work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada, the Guggenheim Bilbao, the Moscow House of Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, ARCO Madrid, the Israel Museum, and the Whitney Museum...His work included in numerous collections including: the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the George Eastman House, the Getty Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Bruce Silverstein gallery located at 535 W. 24 Street, New York City.
Art Auction. Phillips de Pury. New York
Phillips de Pury & Company to offer Robert Mapplethorpe photographs from the collection of Lisa Lyon at New York Auction on October 16, 2008.
Sale to include strong group of fashion photographs with iconic works by Helmut Newton, Stephen Klein and David Lachapelle Alongside early photographs from Alexander Rodchenko, Edward Steichen and Eugene Atget. Auction date: October 16, 2008; Viewing dates: October 8-15, 2008.
Robert Mapplethorpe photographs from the collection of Lisa Lyon featured an exceptional selection of 18 images from Mapplethorpe's celebrated series Lady Lisa Lyon. Between 1980-1982, at a pivotal moment in Mapplethorpe's artistic practice, the photographer produced this intimate series of black-and-white portraits of the pioneering 1970s female bodybuilder Lisa Lyon. As collaborators, performers and close friends until the artist's death in 1898, Mapplethorpe and Lyon in a multitude of characters, from girl-next-door to dominatrix; fashion model to vamp; the photographs also convey a collaborative play in which both Artist and Lyon inhabit performative roles - much as an artist performed as both photographer and subject within his radical self-portraiture. The results are electric, a powerful series of work documenting a play of series both before and behind the camera.
Lisa Lyon with snake, 1982, one of the most highly sought after works from Lady Lisa Lyon, is featured with an estimate of $20,000-$30,000. This photograph cast Lyon in the image of Eve, an aesthetically perfect being handling a powerful python, the controlled setting conveying both desire and fear.
A body of fashion photographs is offered in this sale with several seductive masterpieces from Helmut Newton, the photographer who conveyed the erotic pleasures of voyeurism. Newton's masterpiece Charlotte Rampling at the Hotel Nord Pinus ll, Arles, 1973 conveys classic Newtonian hallmarks of naughty decadence and elegant debauchery and is offered with an estimate of $120,000-180,000. Also offered is Newton's Rue Aubriot, Paris, 1975, a photograph which defines the chic aura of the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent, and Office Love, Paris, 1976, a peephole a kinky afternoon tryst. Office Love, Paris will be offered at an estimate of $25,000-35,000.
Prime examples of contemporary photography in this auction include Thomas Puff's Substrates 7 lll, 2002, from his famed series in which he digitally manipulates images taken from Japanese manga cartoons, and Erwin Olafs Royal Blood, Sissy + 1898, 2000, an exquisite, unsetting commentary on celebrity and violence. Other contemporary photographs include Paolo Ventura, Nobuyoshi Araki and Robert Polidori.
This sell additionally presents a selection of international artists, including Abbas Kiarostami and Wang Quingsong. Wang's Yaochi Fista, 005, references a mythic place in Chinese lore and is a prosaic portrait of group nudity. Yaochi Fiesta is estimated at $ 25,000-35,000. Kiarostami's Untitled #1 from Snow White, 1998 is a cinematic portrayal of lone isolated trees floating within an ethernal landscape. This poetic work from the widely celebrated Iranian filmmaker and photographer is offered at $30,00-40,000.
A strong selection of early photographic works by Eugene Atget, Alexander Rodchenko, Edward Steicken and Ansel Adams is presented in the morning session. Of special note is a Rodchenko gelatin silver print of Poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, coupled with a book entitled Soviet Advertising Poster, both gifts from the Rodchenko family to the art critic Douglas Davis during his visit to Stalin-era Russia. This lot is offered at $15,000-25,000.
Phillips de Pury & Company is located at 450 West 15 Street, New York, New York, USA.
The New York Public Library: Exhibitions
Vincent Astor Gallery (through October 31, 2008): "Take Me Out to the Ball Game: 100 Years of Music, Musicians, and the National Pastime" is an exhibit for the whole family. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of baseball best-known song, the Library presents a tribute to the sport and to the musicians who love it - beginning with a history of the title song and its creators. The exhibition is organized around the baseball anthem's lyrics. The 1st section, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," features the earliest sheet music, recordings, and promotional material for the song. "Take Me Out with the Crowd" focuses on being at the game, with its large crowds, the seventh-inning stretch, and the variety of factors, musicians, politicians, and celebrities who not only loved, promoted, and attended the game, but sometimes played it themselves. "Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack" looks at baseball and the promotion of the game through food cards, tobacco cards, and variety of other products.
"Root for the Home Team" features memorabilia from New York's historic baseball teams and their organists. Materials are drawn from many of the library's collections, including the Photography, Print, and Arent Collections of the Humanities and Social Sciences library; the Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture; and the Library's Picture Collection. The exhibition also includes digital audio and print materials from the holdings of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum, Cooperstown, New York; materials on loan from MRS. Robert Merrill; and unique items borrowed from the private collection of Andy Strasberg...
Exhibition Hall and Latimer/Edison Gallery (through November 30, 2008): Aaron Douglas (1899-1979) is considered the foremost visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance. In paintings, murals, and book illustrations, he incorporated elements from music, dance, literature, and politics to produce powerful artistic forms that had a lasting impact on American art history and the nation's cultural heritage. Working from a politicized concept of personal identity, he combined angular Cubist rhythms and seductive Art Deco dynamism with traditional African and African American imagery to develop a radically new visual vocabulary that evoked both current realities and hopes for a better future. Curated by the Spencer Museum of Art/The University of Kanses, this is the 1st nationally touring retrospective to celebrate his art and legacy. This special traveling exhibit features the four Douglas murals from the Schomburg Center's Art and Artifacts Division.
Books: Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company was founded in 1837 and for close to two centuries has published fiction and nonfiction by many of the United States finest writers. Early lists featured Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson's poetry, and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, all of which are still available today.
In 1993 Little, Brown created a new trade paperback imprint, Back Bay Books. Back Bay Books focuses on long-term publication of the company's best fiction and nonfiction and on publishing original trade paperbacks. Little, Brown is also the home of Bulfinch Press, a leading publisher of art and photography books. Bestselling novelists on the Little, Brown hardcover and Back Bay paperback lists include J. D. Salinger, James Patterson, Herman Wouk, Alice Sebold, Anita Shreve, Walter Mosley, Janet Fitch, John le Carre, Jimmy Buffett, Pete Hamill, David Foster Wallace, and Michael Connelly.
In nonfiction, Little, Brown's bestselling and prizewinning works include such distinguished writers as James Bradley, William Manchester, George Stephanopoulos, Gloria Steinem, the Dalai Lama, David Sedaris, John Feinstein, Malcolm Gladwell, and the cartoonist R. Crumb.
Bulfinch publishes the distinguished photography of Ansel Adams, Sally Mann, Irving Penn, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Joyce Tenneson, Howard Schatz and Abelardo Morell.
A novel The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent published by Little, Brown and Company in 2008. This title is the debut of a new storyteller. Kathleen Kent spent five years researching the Salem with trials and writing The Heretic's Daughter. This title is a look at one of the worst periods in our history...In 1752 Sarah Carrier Chapman writes a letter to her granddaughter, telling the secret she has guarded closely for many years. This is a story of the horrors in a New England town called Salem. Just a little girl, Sarah made a decision that changed her life forever. Often at odds with each other, mother and daughter must stand together in the face of torture and even death. With the increase in Indian raids and the spread of the plague, the Puritans come to believe that heretics in their midst are responsible for their misfortune...
Exit Music is a novel by Ian Rankin (the author of the Naming of the Dead) published by Little, Brown and Company in September of 2008. This energetic title draws a raw character of inspector Rebus... A dissident Russian poet has been found in the streets, beaten to death. When Rebus starts probing, he realizes that his final days will not be spent reminiscing.
...An elite delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, looking to invest in Scotland and expand its interests. Edinburgh's bankers and politicians want the case was closed. The deeper Rebus and Detective Siobhan Clarke dig, the more convinced they become that they are dealing with more than a random attack. Soon Rebus find himself with even more questions...
Exit Music marks the final outing for the legendary Inspector John Rebus. Ian Rankin is a #1 international bestselling author, Winner of an Edgar Award and the recipient of a Gold Dagger for fiction and the Chandler-Fulbright Award, he lives in Edinbyrgh, Scotland.
September, 2008
Washington Mutual Was Shut...
Thursday's seizure and sale is the latest historic step in U.S. government attempts to clean up a banking industry littered with toxic mortgage debt. Negotiations over a $700 billion bailout of the entire financial system stalled in Washington on Thursday.
WaMu has been one of the lenders hardest hit by the nation's housing bust and credit crisis, and had already suffered from soaring mortgage losses.
WaMu was shut by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was named receiver. This followed $16.7 billion of deposit outflows at the Seattle-based thrift since September 15.
The OTS said that with insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations, WaMu was in an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business.
The FDIC said that customers should expect business as usual on Friday, and all depositors are fully protected.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the bailout happened on Thursday night because of media leaks, and to calm customers. The FDIC takes control of failed institutions on Friday nights, giving it the weekend to go through the books and enable them to reopen smoothly the following Monday.
WaMu has about $307 billion of assets and $188 billion of deposits.
WaMu was sold to JPMorgan, who said that the transaction means it will now have 5,410 branches in 23 U.S. states from coast to coast, as well as the largest U.S. credit card business.
It vaults JPMorgan past Bank of America Corp to become the nation's second-largest bank, with $2.04 trillion of assets, behind Citigroup Inc. Bank of America will go to No. 1 once it completes its planned purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The bailout also fulfills JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon's long-held goal of becoming a retail bank force in the western United States. It comes 4 months after JPMorgan acquired the failing investment bank Bear Stearns Cos at a fire-sale price through a government-financed transaction.
On a conference call, Dimon said that the risk here obviously is the asset values.
That's what created this opportunity.
JPMorgan expects to incur $1.5 billion of pre-tax costs, but realize an equal amount of annual savings, mostly by the end of 2010. It expects the transaction to add to earnings immediately, and increase earnings 70 cents per share by 2011.
It also plans to sell $8 billion of stock, and take a $31 billion write-down for the loans it bought, representing estimated future credit losses.
The FDIC said the acquisition does not cover claims of Washington Mutual equity, senior debt and subordinated debt holders. It also said the transaction will not affect its roughly $45.2 billion deposit insurance fund.
Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati said that Jamie Dimon is clearly feeling that he has an opportunity to grab market share, and get it at fire-sale prices. He's becoming an acquisition machine.
The transaction came as Washington wrangles over the fate of a $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry, which has been battered by mortgage defaults and tight credit conditions, and evaporating investor confidence. Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney said that it removes an uncertainty from the market. The problem is that markets are in a jittery stage. WaMu provides another reminder how tenuous things are. WaMu's collapse is the latest of a series of takeovers and outright failures that have transformed the American financial landscape and wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of shareholder wealth. These include the disappearance of Bear, government takeovers of mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the insurer American International Group Inc, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, and Bank of America's purchase of Merrill. JPMorgan, based in New York, ended June with $1.78 trillion of assets, $722.9 billion of deposits and 3,157 branches. WaMu then had 2,239 branches and 43,198 employees. It is unclear how many people will lose their jobs. Shares of WaMu plunged $1.24 to 45 cents in after-hours trading after news of a JPMorgan transaction surfaced. JPMorgan shares rose $1.04 to $44.50 after hours, but before the stock offering was announced. The transaction ends exactly 119 years of independence for WaMu, whose predecessor was incorporated on September 25, 1889, "to offer its stockholders a safe and profitable vehicle for investing and lending." It also follows more than a week of sale talks in which WaMu attracted interest from several suitors. These included Banco Santander SA, Citigroup Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Wells Fargo & Co, as well as private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Carlyle Group. Less than three weeks ago, WaMu ousted Chief Executive Kerry Killinger, who drove the thrift's growth as well as its expansion in subprime and other risky mortgages. It replaced him with Alan Fishman, the former chief executive of Brooklyn, New York's Independence Community Bank Corp. WaMu's board was surprised at the seizure, and had been working on alternatives, people familiar with the matter said. More than half of Washington Mutual's roughly $227 billion book of real estate loans was in home equity loans, and in adjustable-rate mortgages and subprime mortgages that are now considered risky. The transaction wipes out a $1.35 billion investment by David Bonderman's private equity firm TPG Inc, the lead investor in a $7 billion capital raising by the thrift in April. Once a golden child at Citigroup before his mentor Sanford "Sandy" Weill engineered his ouster in 1998, Dimon has carved for himself something of a role as a Wall Street savior. Dimon joined JPMorgan in 2004 after selling his Bank One Corp to the bank for $56.9 billion, and became chief executive at the end of 2005. Some historians see parallels between him and the legendary financier John Pierpont Morgan, who ran J.P. Morgan & Co and was credited with intervening to end a banking panic in 1907. JPMorgan has suffered less than many rivals from the credit crisis, but has been hurt. It said on Thursday it has already taken $3 billion to $3.5 billion of write-downs this quarter on mortgages and leveraged loans. WaMu has a major presence in CA and FLA, two of the states hardest hit by the housing crisis. It also has a big presence in the New York City area. The thrift lost $6.3 billion in the nine months ended June 30...
Ukraine Could Be A Second India
The director of Microsoft Ukraine believes the Ukraine will play a big role in software development. Eric Franke has been the general director of Microsoft Ukraine since December 2007. The Dutch national has more than 20 years of information technology industry experience.
Washington Mutual Was Shut...
Thursday's seizure and sale is the latest historic step in U.S. government attempts to clean up a banking industry littered with toxic mortgage debt. Negotiations over a $700 billion bailout of the entire financial system stalled in Washington on Thursday.
WaMu has been one of the lenders hardest hit by the nation's housing bust and credit crisis, and had already suffered from soaring mortgage losses.
WaMu was shut by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was named receiver. This followed $16.7 billion of deposit outflows at the Seattle-based thrift since September 15.
The OTS said that with insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations, WaMu was in an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business.
The FDIC said that customers should expect business as usual on Friday, and all depositors are fully protected.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the bailout happened on Thursday night because of media leaks, and to calm customers. The FDIC takes control of failed institutions on Friday nights, giving it the weekend to go through the books and enable them to reopen smoothly the following Monday.
WaMu has about $307 billion of assets and $188 billion of deposits.
WaMu was sold to JPMorgan, who said that the transaction means it will now have 5,410 branches in 23 U.S. states from coast to coast, as well as the largest U.S. credit card business.
It vaults JPMorgan past Bank of America Corp to become the nation's second-largest bank, with $2.04 trillion of assets, behind Citigroup Inc. Bank of America will go to No. 1 once it completes its planned purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The bailout also fulfills JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon's long-held goal of becoming a retail bank force in the western United States. It comes 4 months after JPMorgan acquired the failing investment bank Bear Stearns Cos at a fire-sale price through a government-financed transaction.
On a conference call, Dimon said that the risk here obviously is the asset values.
That's what created this opportunity.
JPMorgan expects to incur $1.5 billion of pre-tax costs, but realize an equal amount of annual savings, mostly by the end of 2010. It expects the transaction to add to earnings immediately, and increase earnings 70 cents per share by 2011.
It also plans to sell $8 billion of stock, and take a $31 billion write-down for the loans it bought, representing estimated future credit losses.
The FDIC said the acquisition does not cover claims of Washington Mutual equity, senior debt and subordinated debt holders. It also said the transaction will not affect its roughly $45.2 billion deposit insurance fund.
Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati said that Jamie Dimon is clearly feeling that he has an opportunity to grab market share, and get it at fire-sale prices. He's becoming an acquisition machine.
The transaction came as Washington wrangles over the fate of a $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry, which has been battered by mortgage defaults and tight credit conditions, and evaporating investor confidence. Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney said that it removes an uncertainty from the market. The problem is that markets are in a jittery stage. WaMu provides another reminder how tenuous things are. WaMu's collapse is the latest of a series of takeovers and outright failures that have transformed the American financial landscape and wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of shareholder wealth. These include the disappearance of Bear, government takeovers of mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the insurer American International Group Inc, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, and Bank of America's purchase of Merrill. JPMorgan, based in New York, ended June with $1.78 trillion of assets, $722.9 billion of deposits and 3,157 branches. WaMu then had 2,239 branches and 43,198 employees. It is unclear how many people will lose their jobs. Shares of WaMu plunged $1.24 to 45 cents in after-hours trading after news of a JPMorgan transaction surfaced. JPMorgan shares rose $1.04 to $44.50 after hours, but before the stock offering was announced. The transaction ends exactly 119 years of independence for WaMu, whose predecessor was incorporated on September 25, 1889, "to offer its stockholders a safe and profitable vehicle for investing and lending." It also follows more than a week of sale talks in which WaMu attracted interest from several suitors. These included Banco Santander SA, Citigroup Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Wells Fargo & Co, as well as private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Carlyle Group. Less than three weeks ago, WaMu ousted Chief Executive Kerry Killinger, who drove the thrift's growth as well as its expansion in subprime and other risky mortgages. It replaced him with Alan Fishman, the former chief executive of Brooklyn, New York's Independence Community Bank Corp. WaMu's board was surprised at the seizure, and had been working on alternatives, people familiar with the matter said. More than half of Washington Mutual's roughly $227 billion book of real estate loans was in home equity loans, and in adjustable-rate mortgages and subprime mortgages that are now considered risky. The transaction wipes out a $1.35 billion investment by David Bonderman's private equity firm TPG Inc, the lead investor in a $7 billion capital raising by the thrift in April. Once a golden child at Citigroup before his mentor Sanford "Sandy" Weill engineered his ouster in 1998, Dimon has carved for himself something of a role as a Wall Street savior. Dimon joined JPMorgan in 2004 after selling his Bank One Corp to the bank for $56.9 billion, and became chief executive at the end of 2005. Some historians see parallels between him and the legendary financier John Pierpont Morgan, who ran J.P. Morgan & Co and was credited with intervening to end a banking panic in 1907. JPMorgan has suffered less than many rivals from the credit crisis, but has been hurt. It said on Thursday it has already taken $3 billion to $3.5 billion of write-downs this quarter on mortgages and leveraged loans. WaMu has a major presence in CA and FLA, two of the states hardest hit by the housing crisis. It also has a big presence in the New York City area. The thrift lost $6.3 billion in the nine months ended June 30...
Ukraine Could Be A Second India
The director of Microsoft Ukraine believes the Ukraine will play a big role in software development. Eric Franke has been the general director of Microsoft Ukraine since December 2007. The Dutch national has more than 20 years of information technology industry experience.
Franke led the development of UMC, now MTS, from a mobile phone subscriber base of 400,000 to more than 11 million between 2001 and 2005. Eric Franke thinks that Ukraine has the potential to become a second India in software development outsourcing.
There are 30,000 to 40,000 individual software developers in Ukraine. It has huge potential and is well placed, close to Russia and Europe. Infrastructure is relatively OK, and there is a lot of intellectual potential.
There are 30,000 to 40,000 individual software developers in Ukraine. It has huge potential and is well placed, close to Russia and Europe. Infrastructure is relatively OK, and there is a lot of intellectual potential.
From his point of view – from a sales and marketing perspective. A number of developers are working on products for Microsoft. There are at least 400 developers working on Microsoft products writing code, integrating, supporting, localizing and adapting software.
Ukraine is in an exceptional position because when Microsoft looks for developers they look to the huge countries like India, Russia, China and, of course, the United States. Compared to these countries, Ukraine is relatively small, but there are a lot of good programmers there.
When [Microsoft CEO] Steve Ballmer was in Ukraine, he was surprised by a question a student asked about robotics and parallel processing. He was astonished that the student asked a question that usually only gets asked at Microsoft labs...
When [Microsoft CEO] Steve Ballmer was in Ukraine, he was surprised by a question a student asked about robotics and parallel processing. He was astonished that the student asked a question that usually only gets asked at Microsoft labs...
Microsoft has formed partnerships with the 10 core universities in Ukraine, and also opened the Microsoft Innovation Center at National Taras Shevchenko University. Microsoft supply them with development tools and provide free training to help incubate talent.
The market in Ukraine: about 85 % of the IT (information technology) business is in hardware. Software is still is a small slice. This shows Ukraine is at the beginning of the developmental cycle.
The market in Ukraine: about 85 % of the IT (information technology) business is in hardware. Software is still is a small slice. This shows Ukraine is at the beginning of the developmental cycle.
The IT business is growing at about 40 % each year. Microsoft is growing even faster. Microsoft Ukraine started with four employees in 2003, and now Microsoft has 150. The growth will not slow for at least three years.
The biggest growth is coming from solutions sales and partners. Microsoft's main target is to increase the reach of the company by working with partners. At the moment they have over 1,000 partners.
Outsourcing represents about 80 % of software development work in Ukraine. That can be anything from integration jobs, quality assurance and conversion projects.
The biggest growth is coming from solutions sales and partners. Microsoft's main target is to increase the reach of the company by working with partners. At the moment they have over 1,000 partners.
Outsourcing represents about 80 % of software development work in Ukraine. That can be anything from integration jobs, quality assurance and conversion projects.
Ukrainians are hard working people who know how to work towards targets. They know how to dig into the earth. They know how to do things with their own hands and, in this case, their brains.
The IT (information technology) job market is overheated at the moment. It is no longer an employers’ market. It is a job candidate’s market. Talented people with Microsoft on their resume can get any job they like.
The piracy situation today is a problem. No company would dream about launching a product in Ukraine because the next day it will be pirated. The piracy rate in Ukraine is 83 % of the installed base. Last year it was 84%, so it is a huge problem that is not improving quickly. Microsoft does see improvement with the big companies, but small and medium sized companies, companies with five to 50 computers, are a challenge.
While Ukraine isn’t as big as India, it can play a big role in outsourcing and development. Looking at the potential, looking at the 40 % annual growth, the director of Microsoft Ukraine Eric Franke thinks Ukraine could be a second India. It has all the ingredients: huge intellectual capital and proximity to the West.
The IT (information technology) job market is overheated at the moment. It is no longer an employers’ market. It is a job candidate’s market. Talented people with Microsoft on their resume can get any job they like.
The piracy situation today is a problem. No company would dream about launching a product in Ukraine because the next day it will be pirated. The piracy rate in Ukraine is 83 % of the installed base. Last year it was 84%, so it is a huge problem that is not improving quickly. Microsoft does see improvement with the big companies, but small and medium sized companies, companies with five to 50 computers, are a challenge.
While Ukraine isn’t as big as India, it can play a big role in outsourcing and development. Looking at the potential, looking at the 40 % annual growth, the director of Microsoft Ukraine Eric Franke thinks Ukraine could be a second India. It has all the ingredients: huge intellectual capital and proximity to the West.
London: Art Auction
By the sale’s end, on Tuesday afternoon, the entire auction brought a total of $200.7 million, more than the auction house’s high estimate of $177.6 million.
Sotheby’s said the total broke the record for a single-artist auction, set in 1993 when a Picasso sale with 88 works brought $20 million.
Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art in London said that they are still appealing to a small percentage of the world’s population; these people are sophisticated and they still have budgets for art...
Sotheby’s went to great lengths to market the event, devoting its entire New Bond Street home to showing the works as if they were part of a museum retrospective and keeping the viewing open until midnight on Saturday. In all, more than 21,000 people saw the offerings.
Sotheby’s experts took some of the highlights on tour, to Bridgehampton, N.Y., and New Delhi, and posted videos of the work and the artist on YouTube, a first for the auction house. It was a first for an artist too: Mr. D. Hirst was bypassing his dealers (Gagosian Gallery, based in the US, and White Cube in London) and taking his work straight to auction. Hirst also spent time on marketing, inviting collectors to see his pieces over the last several months. Few other artists could produce a body of work as large, it is expected that single works by artists may take the same route.
Sotheby’s said that it was too early to identify most of the buyers. But Americans were noticeably absent. Mr. Barker, the auctioneer for most of the sale, said that he could see a lot of new faces... Russians continued to support the art market.
The Russian collectors at the turn of the century loved the avant-garde. It’s coming full circle.
The top seller of the two-day event was “The Golden Calf,” a white bullock preserved in formaldehyde, with hoofs and horns made of 18-carat gold and a gold disc crowning the head. This work was estimated at $15.8 million to $23.6 million and drew three bidders. It went for $18.6 million.
Another highlight was “Fragments of Paradise,” a stainless-steel and glass cabinet filled with manufactured diamonds that made $9.3 million on Monday, nearly three times its $2.9 million high estimate.
On Tuesday the salesroom was packed. Among the big sellers were “The Dream,” a “unicorn” that was a foal in a glass and steel tank of formaldehyde. It sold $4.1 million, above its $3.9 million low estimate.
Pretty images had many takers. “Ascended,” a canvas filled with colorful butterflies, attracted three bidders. It ended up bringing $4 million. Another butterfly work, “Reincarnated,” had two bidders and went for $2.8 million.
Throughout the sale works on paper brought high prices. “Beautiful Spinny Drawing” brought $148,807. Several colored-pencil drawings also did very well. “Beautiful Bullseye Drawing” had been expected to sell for $29,700 to $39,500. Melanie Clore, Sotheby’s deputy chairman in Europe, took the winning bid for client who paid $53,883.
Three people tried for “Pigs Might Fly,” a piglet with dove’s wings in a gold-plated case filled with formaldehyde, it was bought for $872,139.
More macabre works also sold for far below their estimates. “The Broken Dream,” a foal’s head floating in formaldehyde with a knife beside it, was expected to bring $1.1 million to $1.5 million. White Cube, owned by Jay Jopling, bought the work for $907,480.
Alberto Mugrabi, a New York dealer, has bought only two works, a spot painting and a drawing. Hi said that it’s the way to escape from reality, and over time it could be a really good investment...
Artprice: Surrealism – A Record Year
Surrealist art works are posting record prices. Stimulated by the sale of the Breton collection in April 2003 (Calmels-Cohen, Paris) and then by the André Lefevre collection in December 2007 (Aguttes, Paris), prices in the segment are reaching new peaks, having progressed another 21% over the first 9 months of this year. Over 10 years, the movement's price index has gained 214%. This year surrealism has enjoyed a high media profile with the auction of the "Manifesto of Surrealism" manuscript written in 1924 by the French author André Breton. The Manifesto was sold off in a lot of 9 manuscripts acquired by the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts for a total of €3.2m at Sotheby's Paris on 21 May. At the same time, a number of new records for surrealist paintings and photographs have been set throughout the year. On the paintings side, the absolute record was set by Joan Miro's La caresse des étoiles (1938) when it fetched $15.2m at Christie's New York on 6 May 2008. In November 2004, the same painting sold for $10.5m at the same auctioneer! Among the recent records posted since the beginning of the year, we note the £1.3m paid for Oscar Dominguez' Machine à coudre electro-sexuelle 1 on 24 June and the $850,000 paid for Victor Brauner's Ultratableau Biosensible. Joseph Sima also set a new record with the equivalent of €186,000 for Lieu de l’absence at Art Consulting Brno (Prague). In a lower price range, other new records have been set since the start of the year for photographs by Hans Bellmer, Pierre Molinier and Claude Cahun. Still relatively unknown 10 years ago, Claude Cahun's prices are today approaching those commanded by Brassaï! In fact, on 28 May 2008 a Claude Cahun silvered print entitled the Hands - estimated at between 4 and 6 thousand euros - went under the hammer for €33,000 (Drouot estimations, Paris)… while on 21 May 2008, un photo-montage of fours pairs of fetishised legs by Pierre Molinier (who was also a painter: one would expect to pay between 30 and 90 thousand euros for one of his better paintings) fetched €13,500 at Sotheby's in Paris.
However, the highest price paid for a surrealist photograph in 2008 concerned Hans Bellmer's La poupée. Released from the Quillan Collection, it fetched $260,000 at Sotheby’s. This sum topped his previous record at the famous Breton sale in 2003 by $60,000.
In fact, this year it seems the best works from the surrealism movement would have continued on an inflationary price path even without any major event or sale to stimulate the market.
Film
Early September is a quiet time at the box office: the summer blockbuster season is over. The studios spend the early fall quietly dumping their underperforming movies on the market. "Bangkok Dangerous" was the only new wide release this weekend. This movie reportedly cost $45 million to make, Lionsgate acquired U.S. and Canadian rights for a modest sum from "The Departed" producer Graham King's Initial Entertainment Group. The film is a remake of the 1999 Thai film of the same name, with both being directed by Hong Kong-born twin brothers Danny and Oxide Pang. The remake was not screened in advance for critics...The 44-year-old actor, Nicolas Cage done not 'too good' at the box office. His terrorism thriller "Next" opened to $7.1 million in April 2007 and the family drama "The Weather Man" to $4.2 million in 2005. He was last in theaters with "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," The action sequel opened to $45 million in December on its way to $220 million. After three weeks at No. 1, DreamWorks/Paramount's Hollywood satire "Tropic Thunder" slipped to No. 2 with $7.5 million, while Columbia Pictures' comedy "The House Bunny" rose one to No. 3 with $5.9 million in its 3rd week. Their respective tallies stand at $97 million and $37 million...
Less than a year after starring in the biggest movie of Cage's career, Nicolas led the American box office to its worst weekend in five years on Sunday with one of his weakest. "Bangkok Dangerous," a thriller in which Cage plays a jaded assassin, opened at No. 1 with estimated 3-day earnings of just $7.8 million. ...Industry observers had predicted it would earn more than $10 million. The last box office champ to open lower was the David Spade comedy "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star," which kicked off with $6.7 million during the weekend of September 5-7, 2003.
A Star is Born
"A star is born," said Chris Wallace on Fox.
"A star is born," Blitzer said.
"A star is born," said Anderson Cooper on CNN.
Palin combined jokes about being a hockey mom with searing criticism of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. It was a spur to a convention audience ready to get worked up, to a large extent because Republican leaders had pushed the notion that the news media was being sexist or too aggressive in questioning her qualifications for the job.
For a relative rookie on the national stage, Sarah understood the nuances of speaking to a TV audience better than R. Giuliani.
"I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone," Palin said.
Some on the convention floor chanted "N-B-C, N-B-C."
Her speech was the main event Wednesday, and may prove the most important in the convention for the GOP. During its coverage, CNN ran a countdown clock in the corner of its screen, ticking down the hours, minutes and seconds to when Palin was due to take the stage in St. Paul, Minn.
This week the focus has been on John McCain's running mate - everyone loves a good mystery.
Former McCain rival Mike Huckabee, part of the undercard Wednesday, thanked the "elite media" for uniting Republicans behind its ticket.
Republicans may have been betrayed by the giant video screen that has been an effective backdrop for convention speakers. Giuliani spoke in front of a New York City skyline rising out of the water...
The political infighting extended to the rapid Internet distribution Wednesday of an exchange, reportedly done after an MSNBC segment on the campaign with NBC News' Chuck Todd, the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy, a former McCain aide. Their comments were caught on a live microphone but weren't played on the air. NBC News wouldn't comment on how the material became public.
Noonan later wrote on The Wall Street Journal Website that Palin's remarks were taken out of context. She said questions about whether she was the most qualified were raised in her own mind Wednesday when she happened to see Texas Sen. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Noonan wrote that she suspected Palin's candidacy "will be either dramatically successful or dramatically not; it won't be something in between." Obama planned to strike back against GOP criticism on Thursday with an appearance on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor," cable news. Not only will Obama face an audience crammed with Republicans, it will take time on Fox away from watching the final night of the GOP convention. Host Bill O'Reilly acknowledged Barack Hussein Obama's getting heat from his fans for the timing, and for his general tendency to ignore the convention podium. He was interviewing comic Dennis Miller Wednesday when CNN, MSNBC, PBS and C-SPAN were showing a speech by former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. O'Reilly said that he would have rather had him on next week. But he might not get another shot at this so he took it. As has been the case throughout the campaign, Republicans are proving less of a television draw than Democrats. An estimated 21.5 million people watched the second night of the GOP convention on Tuesday between 10 and 11 p.m. The same night for the Democrats last week had just under 26 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Home of the over 3,800 titles, Schiffer Publishing Ltd. produces books under four catalogs, including Antiques and Collectibles, Military History, Lifestyle, and Arts and Crafts. These four catalogs span such subjects as: Surf Memorabilia, Art Deco, Rock Posters, and Depression Glassware (Antiques); Waffen-SS, Rommel, Afrikakorps, Airborne, Aviation and Naval History, Aviation, and Modeling (Military History); Interior and Exterior Design, Fashion and Accessories, Nostalgic tours, Design Patterns, Architectural Details, and Ghosts and the Paranormal, Witchcraft, Astrology, and Nurmerology (Lifestyle); and Woodcarving, Clay Sculpture, Decoys, Canoe Building, and Woodturning (Arts and Crafts).
Introducing selected titles.
Forbidden Art: The World of Erotica by Miss Naomi published by Schiffer Books in 1998. Many years ago, Miss Naomi's oldest son asked her to find some erotic art for his new apartment. After a long search, she found several pieces. Then she decided to buy a few antique erotic pieces for herself... This art intrigued Naomi, she found out that world of erotica was not just "part of the male domain..." She decided to collect and display erotic art in her own home, replacing her original collection.
The Book Forbidden Art: The World of Erotica contains over 500 colour photographs of erotic art works and artifacts; it is 500 unforgettable images of love, passion, and sensuality. This title contains unique and fascinating collection of images of paintings, sculpture, and other items that carry sensuous and erotic charm.
Published in 1998 (10 years ago) this collectible title is still relevant: Miss Naomi's erotic art collection is now on display in WEAM - World Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach, USA. Owner and curator of this museum is N. Wilzig [a.k.a. Miss Naomi]...
Geisha: Women of Japan's Flower & Wilow World by Tina Skinner, Mary L. Martin & Wes Ponder published by Schiffer Books.
Title Geisha is the most comprehensive account of historic geisha images ever appeared in a book. This unique book contains over 500 exquisite pictures drawn from postcards published primarily between 1900 and 1940. The images collection illustrates the world of Japan’s licensed pleasure districts;
the text introduces historical background of the geisha entertainers culture. Geisha contains fascinating information about women who were indentured in virtual slavery within the famed “Flower and Willow World” and explains many gray areas in Japan culture that related to the status and nature of geisha.
This entertaining title about high-class prostitutes and lowly tea servers is explored the life of early 20th century women in Japan.
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