1. Art
I saw the French Dispatch (hence the title of this post), Wes Anderson’s latest (I think) movie. l loved it, of course, but in particular one character - Julien Cadazio, an art dealer serving time for tax evasion (funny already, isn't it?) played beautifully by Adrien Brody. While in prison, Mr. Cadazio gets to meet Moses Rosenthaler an inmate serving time for murder, who turns out to be a magnificent abstract painter. Eventually, Mr. Cadazio will represent Mr. Rosenthaler.
Abstract (modern) art was unknow at that time so Mr. Cadazio was trying to convince his uncles to invest:
Uncle: "Modern art?"
Julien: "Modern art our specialty starting now."
Uncle: "I don't get it."
Julien: "Of course you dont."
Uncle: "Am I too old?"
Julien: "Of course you are."
Uncle: "Why is this good?"
Julien: "It isn't good, wrong idea."
Uncle: "That's no answer?"
Julien: "My point. You see the girl in it?"
Uncle: "No"
Julien: "Trust me, she's there. "
Julien: "His need to fail is more powerful than our strongest desires to help him succeed" "I give up he's defeated us"
Love it!! Cherchez la femme.
Julien Cadazio is inspired by Joseph Duveen, a highly influential art dealer who is best known for bringing the impressionist to the American market. He is also famous for saying:
Europe had plenty of art and America had plenty of money.
His business acumen was incredible and there are all kind of stories about "the duveen price", like for example this one (from the 1951 edition of the New Yorker The Days of Duveen A legendary art dealer and his clients.)
Duveen had enormous respect for the prices he set on the objects he bought and sold. Often his clients tried, in various ways, to maneuver him into a position where he might relax his high standards, but he nearly always managed to keep them inviolate. There was an instance of this kind of maneuvering in 1934, which concerned three busts from the Dreyfus Collection—a Verrocchio, a Donatello, and a Desiderio da Settignano. Duveen offered this trio to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for a million and a half dollars. Rockefeller felt that the price was rather high. Duveen, on the other hand, felt that, considering the quality of the busts, he was practically giving them away. He allowed Rockefeller, in writing, a year’s option on the busts; they were to remain for a year in the Rockefeller mansion as non-paying guests. During that time, Duveen hoped, the attraction the chary host felt for his visitors would ripen into an emotion that was more intense. After several months, the attraction did ripen into affection, but not a million and a half dollars’ worth, and Rockefeller wrote Duveen a letter with a counter-proposal. He had some tapestries for which he had paid a quarter of a million dollars. He proposed to send Duveen these tapestries, so that he could have a chance to become fond of them, and to buy the busts for a million dollars, throwing the tapestries in as lagniappe. As the depression was still on and most people were feeling the effects of it, Rockefeller thought, he said, that Duveen might welcome the million in cash. This letter threw Duveen into a flurry. It bothered him more than most letters he got from clients. His legal adviser told him that the counter-offer, unless immediately repudiated, might result in a cancellation of the option. Duveen sat down and wrote a letter himself. As for the tapestries, he told Rockefeller, he had some tapestries and didn’t want any more. Moreover, he stated, he was not in the stock market, and therefore not in the least affected by the depression. He let fall a few phrases of sympathy for those who were; by his air of surprised incredulity at the existence of people who felt the depression, Duveen managed to convey the suggestion that if Rockefeller was in temporary financial difficulty, he, Duveen, was ready to come to his assistance. He appreciated Rockefeller’s offer of a million dollars in cash, but he implied that, just as he already had some tapestries, he also already had a million dollars. Having dispatched the letter, Duveen, with his customary optimism, prophesied to his associates that Rockefeller would eventually buy the busts at his price. At Christmas time, with a week or so of the option still to go, Rockefeller told Duveen that his final decision was not to buy the busts, and asked Duveen to take them back. Again, Duveen was prepared to be generous, this time about the security of Rockefeller’s dwelling. “Never mind,” he said. “Keep them in your house. They’re as safe there as they would be in mine.” In all love affairs, there comes a moment when desire demands possession. For Rockefeller, this occurred on the day before the option expired. On the thirty-first of December, at the eleventh hour, he informed Duveen that he was buying the busts at a million and a half.
Books
I am reading on a daily basis, with a consistency that I did not know I was capable of, the following books:
Lama Lama -Time to share -involves ripping up arms and stiches. It is triggered by a miscommunication between Lama Lama and his new neighbor - Nelly Gnu. Terrible, terrible plot..
Lama Lama Gram and Grandpa
Lama Lama I love you
Lama Lama nighty night
I also read a book about monkeys that are drumming, one about an elephant who loves reading books and one about the moon going to sleep.
7 books per evening! Tell me you have a toddler without telling me you have one!!!
Jokes aside, what I do read for myself is a book by Guignery Vanessa - Julien Barnes from the Margins: Exploring the Writer’s Archives
I find unbelievable the notes that the writers make, the research and the effort they put into writing a book (that we read in one breath if the book is good). Or, we don’t read at all if we don’t like it or we do not care…but the effort is still there.
3. Music
The music from the 70s is my thing now. It might be triggered by the TV show Andy Warhol Diaries. I love Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder
for a bit of disco history you can also listen Daft Punk - Giorgio, by Moroder
Caribbean looks of the week - Butterfly and gorgeous sunset season is on
See you next week,
O