Global arms makers are booming, BYD overtakes Tesla, America's secrecy disease and why we should retire the idea of EM.
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Jacques Villon, L'Atelier de mécanique, 1914. Villon (1875-1963) came from an artistic family and changed his name from Duchamp in part to hide his student artistic contributions to politically oriented publications. His siblings became artists too, including his younger brother Marcel Duchamp. All were caught up in Cubism and abstract expressionism:
Working in a colorful, geometric aesthetic, Villon maintained an interest in abstracting form from observation throughout his career. Even his most non-representational work is derived in some way from life, offering subtle suggestions of landscapes, still lifes, or figures amid his lively, graphic compositions.
His relationship to colour was particularly pathbreaking, emerging in rebellion against the heavy browns of early Cubism. Villon described colour as “bait” in the artist’s attempt to catch reality. “I want,” he said, “to reduce everything to the absolute”:
As his career progressed, Villon became more-and-more absorbed with the idea of "a science of colors". In his abstract works, he applied blocks of pure colors - predominantly red, blue, and yellow - to flat surfaces as a means of redefining pictorial depth. His abstractions were the product of a method he devised whereby figurative works (such as horses and riders) were systematically distilled until they were transformed into pure geometric compositions.
Sources: Artnet and Art Story.
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Good times for the merchants of death
The order books of the world’s biggest defence companies are near record highs after growing by more than 10 per cent in just two years because of rising geopolitical tension, including the conflict in Ukraine. An analysis by the Financial Times of 15 defence groups, including the largest US contractors, Britain’s BAE Systems and South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace, found that at the end of 2022 — the latest for which full-year data is available — their combined order backlogs were $777.6bn, up from $701.2bn two years earlier. The trend’s momentum continued into 2023. In the first six months of this year — the latest comprehensive quarterly data available — combined backlogs at these companies stood at $764bn, swelling their future pipeline of work as governments kept placing orders. The sustained spending has spurred investors’ interest in the sector. MSCI’s global benchmark for the industry’s stocks is up 25 per cent over the past 12 months. Europe’s Stoxx aerospace and defence stocks index has risen by more than 50 per cent over the same period.
Source: FT
China winning the race
China’s BYD Co. bills itself as the biggest car brand you’ve never heard of. It might need a different tagline soon.
The automaker is poised to surpass Tesla Inc. as the new worldwide leader in fully electric vehicle sales. When it does — likely in the current quarter — it will be both a symbolic turning point for the EV market and further confirmation of China’s growing clout in the global automotive industry.
In a sector still dominated by more familiar names like Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co., Chinese manufacturers including BYD and SAIC Motor Corp. are making serious inroads. After leapfrogging the US, South Korea and Germany over the past few years, China now rivals Japan for the global lead in passenger car exports. Some 1.3 million of the 3.6 million vehicles shipped from the mainland as of October this year were electric.
“The competitive landscape of the auto industry has changed,” said Bridget McCarthy, head of China operations for Shenzhen-based hedge fund Snow Bull Capital, which has invested in both BYD and Tesla. “It’s no longer about the size and legacy of auto companies; it’s about the speed at which they can innovate and iterate. BYD began preparing long ago to be able to do this faster than anyone thought possible, and now the rest of the industry has to race to catch up.”
Source: Bloomberg
Emerging for whom?
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Hiding Russian links
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Jacques Villon, Le Petit Atelier Mécanique, 1946. Source: Ader
Stiff upper lips
Valentine Ackland on the philistine and reactionary English response to the Spanish Civil War, 1936:
State secrets — a fascinating new book
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Jacques Villon, Soldats en marche, 1913
