Almighty painter

Chapter 1035 "The Spring"

Next up is the third special effect—

[The Possibilities of Art: Art is about thinking. In most cases, there is never a single answer to appreciating a work of art. From now on, you can repeatedly use the techniques of calligraphy and painting authentication on the same work. You will gradually see things that you couldn't see at first. All those things, real and fake, painstakingly crafted and deliberately mysterious...]

A single artwork can hold countless possibilities. A painting surrounded by crowds in the Louvre might appear bland and lifeless to some. Conversely, a child's casual scribbles might be seen as the world's finest artwork by their parents.

The deeper your understanding of yourself, the more you will see.

The traffic light changed from red to green.

Gu Weijing stepped on the gas, and the yellow POLO slowly drove off down the street.

"The more you know, the more you see"—Gu Weijing pondered the meaning of this sentence as he walked along with the traffic.

Over the past few months, whenever Gu Weijing encountered a particularly interesting work or a particularly boring one, he would throw out a calligraphy and painting appraisal technique.

Sometimes, regardless of whether a work is interesting or not, simply because of his feelings and with the scientific spirit of Fabre observing insects, Gu Weijing will still casually throw in a calligraphy and painting appraisal technique.

He drove his car through the city streets and alleys.

On weekends when he has nothing to do, Gu Weijing would leisurely drive all the way to Munich or even Vienna. On ordinary days, Gu Weijing would also take some time to visit various art spaces in the surrounding area.

He watched as the progress bar for calligraphy and painting appraisal on the system panel rolled forward until it was completely full.

He visited the famous galleries on Hamburg's Museum Island and spent countless afternoons in cheap flea markets.

Good works and bad works—Gu Weijing has seen far too many of them during this period.

In the end, Gu Weijing began to ask himself a question: what exactly constitutes a good work?
Works displayed in museums are considered good works, while those displayed in flea markets are considered bad works.

It is a widely held social perception.

People may not express this viewpoint outright, as they may feel it is too utilitarian, but it seems to be a universally existing and collectively maintained social subconsciousness.

It is extremely rare to see someone commenting on the works in the magnificent collections of a museum, but such things often happen in small galleries and even flea markets.

It is certainly related to the fact that works that can be collected by museums often undergo rigorous selection processes, and it is also related to people's mindset.

However, it would be absurd to use this framework to judge the quality of all works.

People would then discover that Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" from 1890 was an extremely bad work. But a hundred years later, the "Sunflowers" from the 1990s might be the best work in the world.

They are exactly the same painting.

Based on the same logic, a good painter is one who can hold a solo exhibition in a major art museum, and a bad painter is one who cannot. A good work is one that can sell for a sky-high price at Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses, and a bad work is one that no one is interested in at a flea market... and so on. All these evaluation criteria seem unable to accurately define the difference between "good" and "bad".

So, brushstrokes, light and shadow, color, perspective...

Even emotions?

These things are closer to an objective and relatively stable standard: good brushstrokes are good, bad brushstrokes are bad, perspective is accurate enough, and distorted form is distorted.

Whether it's the 1890 version of "Sunflower" or the 1990 version, there will be no difference in this respect.

If the painting itself is properly preserved and there is no physical damage, then in the foreseeable future, in 2090, it will still be the same "Sunflowers".

It does not exist because of Yao, nor does it perish because of Jie.

The evaluations given by traditional art appraisal methods were also based on the principle of not judging a person's existence based on the reign of Emperor Yao, nor on the death of Emperor Jie.

It does not change based on Gu Weijing's personal subjective feelings.

It was a bomb, a heavy hammer, that blasted over with unstoppable force, shattering the brushstrokes and light and shadow of the entire painting into countless fragments, which Gu Weijing then carefully disassembled, appreciating and copying bit by bit.

but.

This precise evaluation system seems to fail in the face of some works of art.

Some works simply lack any brushstrokes; they have nothing that would make the art of calligraphy and painting authentication "explode."

The emotions it conveys are closer to abstract concepts than personal love and hate.

It presents a completely different state from traditional works of art.

For example, the difference between Duchamp's "The Source" and Ingres's "The Source".

The system of evaluating and appreciating brushstrokes works effectively for Ingres, but it would seem strange to apply it to Duchamp.

Countless art professionals have expressed with tears in their eyes that Duchamp's "Fountain" is perhaps the greatest and most impactful work of art in the entire 20th-century Western art world.

The so-called great "Fountain" was just a men's urinal that Duchamp brought over; theoretically, it was no different from any other urinal in the world.

Gu Weijing can proudly say that he has a certain right to speak on the men's restroom.

The number of times he goes to the men's restroom is, most likely... well, there's no need for "most likely," he's 100% certain that he goes to the men's restroom more often than he goes to the art museum, and he's definitely more likely to use his calligraphy and painting authentication skills more often.

He's an expert in this matter!
Gu Weijing had met a classmate who praised Duchamp with deep affection.

So far, in this model with tens of thousands of samples, Gu Weijing has never seen a man rush up to the urinal, hug it, and cry tears of joy while using the toilet.

One day, if he actually walks into the restroom, he might look up and see someone hugging a urinal, crying with emotion, and shouting, "Ah, what a great work!"

Gu Weijing's most likely reaction wouldn't be to rush up excitedly, wanting to get to know this extraordinary artistic genius and make friends.

He's more likely to turn around and leave.

"This world is so dangerous!"

And those minimalist paintings.

At their core, Dadaism and Minimalism are almost opposites. One is full of personal and emotional expression, while the other seeks to strip away all emotional expression, allowing art to return to objectivity, rationality, and order itself.

At the same time, the appearance of the two works, when viewed from certain angles, will have a certain degree of similarity.

When faced with different art exhibits, whether it's a poster just picked up from a trash can, a work with only a few brushstrokes and color dots, or even just a blank canvas, analyzing brushstrokes and light and shadow seems incredibly foolish.

Why are they still considered good works?

It still depends on how you want to define the concept of "good".

It's pointless to try to prove the greatness of works that have been lauded by critics.

This is not a good work at all; the critics are spouting nonsense, and the painter is creating nothing but rubbish—it's the same answer.

It might be a better answer than rushing into the restroom after seeing the exhibition and crying while hugging a urinal in the men's room.

But they are certainly important works in art history.

What exactly is being depicted in paintings?
Gu Weijing has been thinking about this issue.

Is it a brushstroke, color, light and shadow, or an attitude and spirit? Throughout history, many artists have held different views on this.

Some people think that brushstrokes and lighting are all nonsense.

Not only are these all nonsense, but the idea that artworks must be handcrafted by the artist is also nonsense. It's a lie woven by society to consciously sanctify artworks.

"Stop fooling yourself, Bro, it's all fake."

Gu Weijing used to scoff at this idea.

just now.

When Gu Weijing himself became a so-called "master," and one of his works sold for one million pounds, Gu Weijing began to feel that what people said might not necessarily be wrong.

【Painting is a skill, not a gift.】

Painting is a skill, not a talent. In essence, becoming a painter is no more noble than becoming a shoemaker, nor does it require more inspiration.

Only a lucky few can make a lot of money from it.

That's it.

Gu Weijing did indeed put a lot of effort into the art exhibition. He constantly honed his skills, extracted his inspiration, and poured all his heart and soul into the canvas.

And he did indeed achieve success.

An unprecedented success.

When that work from Cape Verde was placed on his desk, after he had seen so many successful works, and so many unsuccessful and very unsuccessful works over the past six months.

A voice inside him asked himself.

"Please stop fooling yourself, Bro. Is it really because your paintings are full of inspiration and your technique is so exquisite that they can sell for a million pounds?"

What exactly is "art"?
In the art market around him, is "art" itself really that important?

Gu Weijing painted a good work, and therefore Gu Weijing's work sold for a very high price—young painters in the past believed that this statement contained two structures.

They are all real, and they are each other's necessary and sufficient conditions.

No.

Gu Weijing has now realized that he made a mistake.

"Gu Weijing painted a good work."

"therefore."

"Gu Weijing's work sold for an extremely high price."

This statement actually contains three elements, but only two of them are true.

He did indeed paint a work he considered quite good, and he did indeed sell it for an extremely high price. Both of these are truths that have been tested by the real world.

But “therefore” – the word “therefore” may not be true.

The truth may be that these two events happened to occur at the same time, so Gu mistakenly believed that there was some causal relationship between them.

It seemed to be a form of sympathetic magic from ancient times.

Thousands of years ago, someone casually lit a handful of wormwood, just as a heavy rainstorm struck, accompanied by thunder and lightning.

then.

People then devoutly believed that there were people called wizards who could communicate with the heavens and possessed the power to summon thunder and rain.

In fact, it doesn't matter how much mugwort you burned, what kind of Nuo dance you performed while sweating profusely by the fire, or whether you used a chicken head, pig head, or cow head for the sacrifice. Or perhaps the sacrifice failed in the end, and the chieftain, fearing that he had angered the heavens, had the shaman thrown into the fire as well.

It has nothing to do with whether or not it will rain.

They are independent events.

The Lord doesn't care.

In his later years, Dalí suffered from Parkinson's disease and stopped painting. Instead, he spent his time practicing his artistic signature on other people's works, which did not prevent him from becoming a high marquis. This was not a technique unique to Dalí, but a fine tradition that can be traced back to the Middle Ages and has existed in artists of almost every era throughout Western art history.

What exactly is "art"?

Even the omnipotent system couldn't give Gu Weijing a precise answer.

It was just telling Gu Weijing.

"Hey."

"Same work."

The more you know, the more you will see.

Gu Weijing looked at the last two explanations of the art of calligraphy and painting authentication.

[Equipment Requirements: Must have 12+ years of experience in art studies, appraisal, or art criticism. Each skill use consumes 100 free experience points; there is no cooldown.]

After the system upgrade, the amount of free experience points consumed when using it has doubled compared to before.

Fortunately.

Compared to when he first acquired this skill and sold his illustrations online for $10, Gu Weijing's net worth has doubled. His net worth increase is more than just doubling; it may have increased ten thousand times.

He didn't feel too much pressure from the cost of 100 free experience points per use.

The last note is the only item that remains completely unchanged after the skill upgrade compared to before the upgrade—

One soul absorbs the emotions of another to enrich itself, and then returns to the world with even richer emotions.
-

The car stopped in front of the two-story building.

Gu Weijing carried the painting he had just picked up from the coffee shop into the house and went up the stairs to the second floor. This villa originally had two master bedrooms and one guest room.

After the school allocated it to Gu Weijing, he didn't need that many bedrooms at all, so he converted the guest room into a small storage room.

He placed the painting next to a watercolor painting.

The watercolor painting next to it is not Gu Weijing's own work, but rather a painting by his grandfather, Gu Tongxiang.

His grandfather's career seemed to have a second spring.

Over the past three years, it's not just Gu Weijing who has made progress. Take his watercolor paintings as an example: this watercolor painting exudes a mature and firm atmosphere, and the skill level has clearly reached a level close to that of a professional third tier.

Whether it's the speed of progress or the painting skills, they are in no way inferior to many students from the art academy.

Considering Old Man Gu's age, this is really quite exaggerated.

Whenever I think about how Gu Tongxiang, at his age, still studies so diligently every day, I feel a pang of sadness.

Gu Weijing felt that in many ways, he was far inferior to his grandfather.

(End of this chapter)