introspectica

Well, after a whirlwind month of travel, trading and general investment business I have managed to catch a spare weekend in Paris.

I love this city – it’s so cliche, I know, but Paris really is magnificent – even after the umpteenth visit it still resonates with an energy that captivates the aesthete within.

On that note,  I caught an article in the weekend FT about Pierre Soulages and his “black art” currently showing at the Pompidou Center. Now, visual art has never captured my imagination – I guess I’ve never found a work that “speaks” to me the way that say Beethoven, Bach or Rachmaninov do – but reading this article piqued my curiosity. I hit up some of his work on Google images and, perhaps for the first time, found some art that really grabbed my attention: these works have a visceral – but thoughtful – hard edge to them that I find very appealing. So much so, I may make my first voluntary visit to a gallery while I am in town.

I also enjoyed reading some of the thought process behind Soulages’ work – especially the process by which he came to discover and refine his technique:

There are also those who dislike you on an aesthetic level: people who don’t accept abstract art, for example, or who refuse to accept that you can create light on a black canvas.”

It was this last discovery, the result of an ultimately happy accident, that has sustained and nourished the past 30 years of the artist’s career. “It happened in 1979,” says Soulages, whose powers of recall are of a rare precision. “I was working on a painting and floundering around in a morass of paint, unable to understand what I was doing, but with something deep inside me compelling me to continue.”

Finally Soulages went to bed. When he woke up, what he saw “was not just a black painting any more but a painting where reflected light had been transformed and transmuted by the black surface. When I realised that light can emanate from the colour which has the biggest absence of light, I was both perturbed and profoundly moved. From that moment my eye changed and I’ve worked in this way ever since.”

and

I’ve got nothing against people who are part of a group but I don’t like being bossed around,” he says. “Groups are interesting for sociologists or historians but artistically it’s a mistake because by grouping artists together you only become focused on what they share. What did artists like Manet or Sisley have in common? Impressionism; but what’s much more interesting is what makes each unique.”

That whole contrast between light and dark – and the concept of light emanating from darkness – seems quite compelling to me. For some reason these seem like particularly appropriate pieces to go in a trading room…is that total sacrilege? Anyway, I will try and get along before heading back to London…

Actually, this is how the classical music bug bit me: more or less by accident. Maybe art will finally get a run in my (desolate) cultural repertoire? Any suggestions from those in the know would be very much appreciated (introspectica – at- gmail) For those who have interest in such things, masteroftheuniverse has a prodigious collection that he loves dearly and writes about reasonably often. His commentary will, no doubt, provide great pleasure to those who share his passion.

On a final art-reated note, It seems I’ve arrived for the end of Paris fashion week. introspectic-ette is with me, and I think she will enjoy trying to catch some of the events surrounding Madames Wintour and Coddington’s agenda-setting junkets. For me, this is an entirely painless proposition; models are an art form that I have very little difficulty appreciating!

The current state of the market still makes me nervous, though the past few weeks have been very profitable ones. Many of the correlations I routinely use to find good setups have returned after a period of complete uselessness. I must say, chatting to different fund managers and brokers – especially those of the high yield and municipal fixed income variety – has yielded some interesting insights: the wild moves seen in high yield seem to largely come from guys not being able to sit on the sidelines anymore. I suspect the same is also true of the equity market brethren. I am debating the level of action I’m willing to take the next few weeks. Part of me thinks it is worth staying on the sidelines for all but the most pure and automated arbitrage situations. Certainly the circus of earnings season will mess up any kind of non-quant style trade I would otherwise have on. Anyway, enough of such mundanities.

So – my brief respite by the balcony in my hotel room draws to a close – the rain has disappeared and it is time to enjoy another stroll around the city. Looking forward to this evening while Paris is all lit up….more light out of the dark.