August 26, 2011 Newsletter
Dear Friends,
Tangents:
August 28th: Writer Johann W. von Goethe’s birthday.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.
-Goethe, 1749-1832
Jackie Wullschlager visits a private collection so fine that it makes Aix-en-Provence a place of cultural pilgrimage
By Jackie Wullschlager, FT, August 26th, 2011.
‘Composition avec des lettres’ (1919) by Fernand Léger
No landscape anywhere is more associated with an artist than the few miles around Aix-en-Provence that take in Cézanne’s Mont St Victoire, Bibemus quarry, chestnut tree park the Jas de Bouffan and the Mediterranean at L’Estaque. In Cézanne’s day, “the vibrations felt from this good sun of Provence … the limitless things in nature … these ineffable contours that leave us with so many profound impressions” were a world away from the Paris of his contemporaries, who considered him a clumsy recluse. Now Aix, a handsomely preserved 17th-century town of broad avenues lined with plane trees and bourgeois mansions, is just three hours from Paris by TGV and its Musée Granet – following restoration begun in 1990 and several bequests and major exhibitions – has become a site of cultural pilgrimage.
The newest, most eccentric and provocative gift, deposited here last year, is on show this summer in the The Planque Collection: The Example of Cézanne: selections from the 300 works assembled by Swiss maverick Jean Planque, who died in a car crash in 1998. Although international in scope – it includes a tumultuous scarlet Van Gogh, which Planque discovered hanging in the barely lit bathroom of a dowdy Basel flat; subtle abstract gouaches by Paul Klee; and works heralding the contemporary scene, such as a 1960 black sand and oil canvas by Antoni Tàpies – the collection has ended up here because Planque’s overriding interest was the legacy in France of the master of Aix.
A fragile, intense yet discreet personality, Planque began his career as a salesman for cattle supplies but from his youth was obsessed with Cézanne. In 1945 he invented a revolutionary concentrate to feed pigs and retired on the proceeds to a cottage at the foot of Mont St Victoire to learn to paint like his idol. He failed, and after a decade changed tack: joining Ernst Beyeler’s new Basel gallery, he acquired “the pictures he aspired to paint”, particularly works echoing Cézanne’s solidity of pictorial language, combined with flamboyant materiality.
The result is not only an exemplary individual and coherent collection but one which, in its strengths and weaknesses, marvellously and poignantly embodies the power, then the collapse, of French painting between 1900 and 1970.
Cézanne’s work was mostly beyond Planque’s means, though he bought in 1947 the airy late watercolours – “Environs d’Aix”, “La Montagne St Victoire vue des Lauves” – that open this show and never look better than when seen in the light of Aix itself. Long into the 20th century they were undervalued: “Surtout n’achetez pas ça, il n’y a rien dessus” (“Do not buy it, there is nothing there”), a connoisseur told Planque as he leafed through folios containing these sheets. But it was precisely the rien – the transparency, sense of weightlessness and even distance, as the motifs are skimmed with terrific economy in semi-abstract marks – that attracted Planque.
He was a collector who thought for himself and demanded emotional resonance from each work. He favoured late Bonnard, for instance, for the dissolution of form – the sunflower-yellow “L’Escalier du Cannet” (1946), with the tiny figure of a boy with a dog, reminded Planque of the “paradis terrestre” of his own rural childhood. He was as decisive for early Braque, notably the darting letters and shapes of the cream-grey oval “Souvenir du Havre” (1912), which he reckoned more lively than the serene perfection of the artist’s mature period.
‘Finlandaise’ (1907) by Sonia Delaunay
Cubism’s debt to Cézanne’s cylinders, spheres and cones made the first years of the movement an obvious attraction but even here Planque sought the eclectic: a rare abstracted view of “L’Estaque” from Raoul Dufy’s brief Cézanne period in 1908; the lyrical geometric constructions of Roger de la Fresnaye’s double-sided “Le Port de Meulan” (1911-12); the sober collage “Guitare” (1917) by sculptor Henri Laurens. A special place was accorded to Fernand Léger’s graphically precise, mechanistic yet subtle “La Rose et le compas” (1924): its meditation on the tension between natural grace and ordered beauty expressed Planque’s ideal of painting.
Then, in the early 1960s, two meetings shaped Planque’s future: with Dubuffet – monumental cartoonish works such as the three-metre “Continuum de ville” and “Légende de la rue” dominate the Granet’s upstairs galleries – and with 80-year-old Picasso, whose appropriation of graffiti styles as shown here vibrantly outstrips the work of the younger artist.
Desperate, like many Europeans, to believe in the continuing potency of postwar French art, Planque amassed a horde of abstract canvases from the 1950s – Roger Bissière, Nicholas de Staël, Raoul Ubac – which attempt to uphold the taut harmonising values of Cézanne and Léger but today look weary, overburdened by history, lacklustre compared with American compositions of the time.
Quickly a trusted confidant, Planque had first pick of the works of both artists through the 1960s. Dubuffet shown at this stretch is repetitive and formulaic but the late Picassos are the jewels in Planque’s crown, closing the circle between Cézanne and modernity that the collector spent a lifetime exploring. The lipstick-pink “Buste de femme endormie” (1970) turns Jacqueline Picasso’s strong features, cupped breasts and enormous hands inside out into a post-cubist parody of a sleeping nude – one exhausted, her expression suggests, by devotion to her elderly, demanding husband. The harsh, dark, unusual landscape “Marine” (1967) was identified at once by Planque as “the river we’ll all have to cross”; although Picasso snapped back “Don’t ever talk of that, Planque”, he sold him the painting.
Soon afterwards Planque’s wife Suzanne died and he acquired the ghoulish but unusually – for Picasso – tender grisaille portrait of a skull-like couple “Homme et femme. Tête” (1969) as a commemoration. It hangs here alongside the piece he called the “nail” of his collection, “Femme au chat assise dans un fauteuil” (1964): a black-green portrait of Jacqueline, her body thinned almost to vanishing point, one giant hand gripping a kitten whose liveliness seems a reproach to the deathly menace of her eyes and stern, flattened features. Planque was so affected by this sombre work that he sometimes turned it to the wall in fear. On the morning of Picasso’s death, he claimed, the canvas detached itself from its nail and slipped to the floor, as if it had a life of its own.
Like many good private collections, this one is animated by Planque’s near-religious belief in the power of pictures. The 17th-century chapel adjacent to the Granet that is being restored as a permanent home for his entire collection will be wonderfully fitting and, when it opens in 2013, a highlight of the Aix-Marseilles region’s year as European cultural capital. By Jackie Wullschlager
‘Collection Planque, L’Exemple de Cézanne’, Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, to November 6
www.museegranet-aixenprovence.fr
Photo of the day
August 26, 2011
The Colombian Navy’s training ship Arc Gloria sails through Tower Bridge on the River Thames in London. One of the biggest tall ships in the world that is still in service, the ship is on a three-day visit to London. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP.
Market Commentary:
Canada
By Matt Walcoff
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Canadian stocks rose, extending a weekly gain, as producers of precious metals and fertilizers advanced after corn and gold futures surged.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, increased 3.9 percent as corn rallied on signs dry weather is reducing U.S. yields.
Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest gold producer by market value, climbed 2 percent as the metal rallied 1.8 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Canada’s second- largest energy company by market value, rose 1.3 percent as natural gas futures gained.
The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index climbed 43.2 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,327.51, completing a weekly increase of 2.7 percent, after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke indicated the economy isn’t deteriorating fast enough to warrant any immediate stimulus. He said the central bank still has tools to stimulate the economy without signaling he will use them.
“The market is happy because the Fed is on the case,”
Marcus Xu, director of equity investments at Genus Capital Management in Vancouver, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees C$1.7 billion ($1.7 billion). “They said, ‘We have a lot of other things we can do.’”
The S&P/TSX has lost 4.8 percent this month, less than half as much as the MSCI World Index, as its gold stocks have rallied 11 percent while its energy companies have plunged 11 percent.
Gold climbed to a record and crude oil sank to a 2011 low earlier this month as economic data signaled a slowing U.S. recovery.
Fertilizer producers advanced as corn futures surged to the highest since June 9. The hottest summer since 1955 in Iowa and Illinois has hurt crops, and the government may have to cut its harvest forecasts, according to a Bloomberg News survey of 25 analysts who traveled through seven states this week on a crop tour organized by the Professional Farmers of America. The group’s estimate for the harvest, based on the tour’s findings, was 3.3 percent below the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s forecast.
Potash Corp. increased 3.9 percent to C$56.15. Agrium Inc., a fertilizer producer and farm retailer, climbed 3 percent to C$81.93.
Thirty-one of 37 S&P/TSX gold stocks rose after Bernanke’s remarks to a forum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Goldcorp gained 1.8 percent to C$50.98. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest producer, advanced 1.4 percent to C$50.06. China Gold International Resources Corp. jumped for a second day after reporting a resources increase, surging 6.3 percent to C$4.70.
Natural gas futures climbed for a second day as meteorologists forecast hotter weather for much of the U.S. Canadian Natural rose 1.3 percent to C$34.84. Nexen Inc., an oil and gas producer with operations on five continents, gained 1.7 percent to C$19.96.
Trilogy Energy Corp., a western Canadian natural gas and oil producer, soared 9.9 percent to C$26.09 on the last day of trading when buyers are entitled to its next quarterly dividend.
A parcel of land near Trilogy’s Kaybob operations sold for a record price Aug. 24, the Calgary Herald reported.
Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest base-metals and coal producer, rose 3 percent to C$40.61 as copper futures gained for a fourth day.
Taseko Mines Ltd., which mines copper in British Columbia, surged 17 percent, the most since January, to C$3.79 after saying the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has accepted its project description for its New Prosperity project. The shares had closed at the lowest since November 2009 yesterday.
Hathor Exploration Ltd., which explores for uranium in Saskatchewan, soared 45 percent, the most since March 2008, to C$3.88 after Cameco Corp. offered to buy the company for C$3.75 a share. Cameco slipped 0.7 percent to C$21.87.
Canada’s seven largest banks fell after Royal Bank of Canada, the biggest, reported third-quarter earnings that trailed the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey, excluding certain items.
Royal Bank, Canada’s largest company by market value, dropped 3.5 percent, the most since December, to C$49 after missing its average analyst profit estimate for the sixth time in the last seven quarters. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank’s biggest domestic rival, declined 1.1 percent to C$73.90. Bank of Nova Scotia, the third-largest lender by assets, lost 1.6 percent to C$51.34.
Trading in Sino-Forest Corp., the forestry company fighting a short seller’s assertions of financial manipulation, was halted today by the Ontario Securities Commission. The regulator said Sino-Forest and some of its officers and directors “appear to have misrepresented some of its revenue and/or exaggerated some of its timber holdings.” U.S. shares of Sino-Forest plunged a record 72 percent to $1.38.
US
By Nick Baker and Rita Nazareth
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks surged, breaking a four- week losing streak for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke indicated the economy isn’t deteriorating enough to warrant any immediate stimulus.
Treasuries trimmed gains and the dollar swung to a loss.
The S&P 500 added 1.5 percent to 1,176.80 at 4 p.m. in New York after losing as much as 2 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.7 percent, trimming its retreat from 2.7 percent.
Yields on Treasury 10-year notes slipped four basis points to 2.19 percent after decreasing 11 points. The Dollar Index lost 0.7 percent after climbing 0.3 percent. Crude added 0.1 percent following a 2.8 percent retreat.
Markets gyrated following the Bernanke speech, in which he said the central bank still has tools to stimulate the economy without signaling he will use them. He echoed comments from dissenting members of the Federal Open Market Committee who said data aren’t pointing to a recession. Investors piled into U.S. equities trading at the cheapest valuations since 2009.
“If they can stick to this and let the market find its own bottom, they will come out of this stronger,” James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Minneapolis-based Wells Capital Management, which oversees about $340 billion, said in a telephone interview. “People will start to develop some confidence that this thing can recover on its own without Fed assistance.”
Stocks initially fell after Bernanke announced no new plan to stimulate growth. He foreshadowed a $600 billion bond- purchase program a year ago at the same event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, helping to stoke a 30 percent surge in the S&P 500 through April 29. The measure has retreated more than 15 percent since that peak amid concern the economy is stalling.
Bernanke said a second day has been added to the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting in September to “allow a fuller discussion” of the economy and the Fed’s possible response. He didn’t close the door in today’s speech to options he has previously discussed, including a third round of government bond buying.
“The one bombshell in the speech is that he did say the September meeting is going to be a two-day meeting, which has two implications,” John Canally, who helps oversee $340.8 billion as an economist and investment strategist at LPL Financial Corp., said in a telephone interview from Boston.
“One, it may mean they’re going to spend more time further refining the tool they’ve already outlined. Or it means they have time to talk about something they haven’t done.”
The Commerce Department said today that U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 1 percent annual rate in the second quarter, less than the median economist forecast, which called for a 1.1 percent expansion.
“Although important problems certainly exist, the growth fundamentals of the United States do not appear to have been permanently altered by the shocks of the past four years,” Bernanke said in prepared comments. “It may take some time, but we can reasonably expect to see a return to growth rates and employment levels consistent with those underlying fundamentals.”
This year’s decline in the S&P 500 left the benchmark gauge for American equities trading at 12.7 times reported earnings as of yesterday, more than 20 percent below its five-decade average. Barton Biggs, founder of hedge fund Traxis Partners LP, said last week that valuations are so low they could withstand a 15 percent decline in profits.
Earnings for companies in the index may rise 18 percent this year, according to the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Economists predict gross domestic product will expand 1.75 percent this year and 2.35 percent in 2012, according to a survey of 56 respondents conducted by Bloomberg.
Threats facing the economy aren’t as grave as they were when Bernanke pledged new stimulus at Jackson Hole in August 2010, according to Russ Koesterich, the San Francisco-based global chief investment strategist for the IShares unit of BlackRock Inc. Solutions such as the so-called quantitative easing program to purchase Treasury notes may be less effective now, said Koesterich, whose firm oversees $3.66 trillion.
“This is pretty much what we expected,” he said. “The economic data points are likely going to continue to be weak, but the market already knows that. If you have period when economic data is poor, but not as bad as people expect, you can actually see some relief in the market.”
Rising consumer prices and signs the economy is still growing may be restricting Bernanke’s options. Gasoline costs are about 30 percent higher, consumer inflation is twice as fast and inflation expectations are above levels since Bernanke signaled more easing a year ago. While the U.S. expansion has slowed, the Chicago Fed’s index of 85 economic indicators improved in July for a third month on gains in production.
The threat of deflation has subsided, with the Labor Department’s consumer price index, minus food and energy, rising 1.8 percent for the 12 months ending July. It increased at a 0.9 percent 12-month rate in July 2010 before Bernanke’s Jackson Hole speech last year.
A measure of inflation expectations watched by the Fed is showing that traders see annual price increases of 2.77 percent starting in five years, compared with 2.22 percent a year ago.
Fed bank presidents Charles Plosser of Philadelphia, Richard Fisher of Dallas and Narayana Kocherlakota of Minneapolis voted against the Fed’s decision to keep the target for the federal funds rate at zero to 0.25 percent until at least mid-2013. Plosser and Fisher said last week the pledge won’t help spur growth. The last time three policy makers dissented was in November 1992.
“Our problems are not problems easily addressed by monetary policy,” Plosser said in an Aug. 17 interview, adding that the Fed is “risking its credibility because it’s doing things that don’t work.”
Policy makers this month pledged to keep their benchmark interest rate near zero until at least mid-2013 and said they “discussed the range of policy tools” available, signaling they may add to their record stimulus.
Bernanke told Congress on July 13 the Fed has stimulus options. They may include buying additional securities, increasing the average maturity of its bond portfolio, lowering the interest rate on excess reserves and pledging to keep its balance sheet near a record high for a longer period of time.
Morgan Stanley analysts have cut their estimate for expansion worldwide this year to 3.9 percent from a previous prediction of 4.2 percent. Part of the reason was “the drama” around lifting the U.S. debt ceiling, which helped depress financial markets and erode business and consumer confidence, the analysts said in a report last week.
President Barack Obama signed a plan to raise the federal debt limit on Aug. 2, the deadline to avoid a possible default, after months of wrangling with Congress. The deal would make $2.4 trillion in deficit cuts over 10 years.
Treasury yields fell today as Bernanke refrained from endorsing the immediate use of additional stimulus measures. The yield on the 30-year bond declined seven basis points to 3.53 percent. Treasuries rose earlier on the GDP report, paring gains as stocks erased losses.
The dollar fell against 14 of its 16 major counterparts as demand eased for refuge investments. The dollar lost 0.8 percent against the euro, and depreciated 1 percent versus the yen. The yen’s advance was the first in three days as Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he was stepping down after parliament passed the final two pieces of his legislative agenda.
The Swiss franc tumbled 2.4 percent versus the euro on speculation Swiss policy makers will introduce new measures to cap its gains and that local banks may start charging customers for franc deposits.
Zurich-based UBS said it may levy a temporary excess balance fee to curb the inflow of Swiss francs, citing “the prevailing market conditions which in particular affect the Swiss franc.” It commented in a note to bank clients sent via the Swift system and confirmed to Bloomberg.
Crude oil gained, erasing declines following Bernanke’s speech. Crude oil for October delivery climbed 0.1 percent to settle at $85.37 a barrel. Futures advanced 3.8 percent this week, for their first weekly gain since July.
Gasoline fell 1.2 percent. Futures climbed 3.1 percent yesterday on concern that Hurricane Irene will batter refineries along the U.S. East coast. The region has 10 operating oil refineries with a capacity of 1.21 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Department. The area accounts for 7.1 percent of total U.S. operating capacity.
Gold jumped for a second straight day, rising 3.4 percent to $1,823.90 in electronic after-market trading. Gold futures slumped as much as 11 percent in the three days through yesterday, after touching a record $1,917.90 an ounce on Aug. 23. Today’s advance pared the metal’s weekly drop to 3 percent.
Gold is in the 11th year of a bull market, the longest winning streak since at least 1920 in London, as investors seek to diversify away from equities and some currencies. Before this week, gold climbed for seven consecutive weeks, the longest rally since April 2007.
Have a wonderful day everyone!
Be magnificent!
Meditation can take place when you are sitting in a bus,
or walking in the woods full of light and shadows,
or listening to the singing of the birds,
or looking at the face of your wife or child.
-Krishnamurti, 1895-1986
As ever,
Carolann
The ultimate inspiration is
the deadline.
-Nolan Bushnell, 1943-