Almighty painter

Chapter 1040 Bond's "True Love" (Part 1)
(Second update)

"Don't you find this statement interesting?"

Gu Weijing suddenly asked.

"what you mean?"

"The €170 painting is better than the €1700 painting. Some people missed out on this painting because the shop owner refused to waive the €5 coffee fee."

Gu Weijing repeated what he had just said from beginning to end.

"And I know that the guest seemed to have arrived in a Porsche sports car."

"This statement is really interesting. When I repeat these words, I feel a sense of absurdity."

Gu Weijing repeated.

“A collector who seems to have plenty of money missed out on a very good piece of art right in front of you because of a very small amount of money,” Mr. Sloth thought for a moment.

He commented, "It's quite regrettable. But absurd... well, not quite absurd. These things happen frequently in life, and artistic appreciation is a rather subjective matter. Perhaps his and your—"

“I’m not referring to the collector’s absurdity.”

Gu Weijing gave a sharp laugh.

"What's so absurd about him? Everyone has their own standards of evaluation, and everyone has their own aesthetic preferences. I even think that person might be an excellent collector. I mentioned him when I was chatting with the shop owner, and I think he has a keen intuition."

"This is good."

"He only glanced at it casually, but he saw many things that others couldn't. It's just that he acted a little slick afterwards."

"it's nothing."

"If you have to spend a lot of money to buy a painting to prove that you like it, then museums are meaningless, aren't they? Whether you can afford to buy a work of art is only related to your ability, not your aesthetic sense. Whether you like it or not is what matters to your aesthetic sense."

Gu Weijing said.

"Maybe he has his own shopping principles, maybe his life motto is that he can only buy paintings if he drinks free coffee. Maybe he suddenly felt unhappy, or maybe he just happens to be short 5 euros."

"There are just too many possibilities. As long as he is self-consistent, then it's not absurd at all. Everyone has their own values, and everyone has the right to be themselves, as long as they don't apply double standards."

"His behavior is not absurd at all. At most, you could only say that he was a little stingy."

"I am the absurd one."

Gu Weijing said.

"I am the one who applies double standards. I have a split personality and I apply double standards to myself. I am the same person who applies double standards to others and to myself."

“We talked about Rembrandt, about Rothko. We just talked for almost an hour about the disillusionment of a certain dream of ‘art’ that was attached to the consumerist values ​​of the upper class. I spoke so earnestly, so from the bottom of my heart. For a moment, I felt like the great Socrates.”

"But then the conversation shifted. When they started talking about themselves..."

Gu Weijing said, “I’m excited to tell you—you know what? There’s a painting that costs 170 euros but is better than the one that costs 1700 euros. There was a guy driving a Porsche who refused to pay 5 euros for coffee because the shopkeeper wouldn’t give him a discount.”

"When I read that sentence aloud, when it reached my ears, and I listened to it again from a third-person perspective, I immediately realized, 'Oh. In my subconscious, I'm still using how much a work of art can sell for, and what its price tag is, as the most important standard for judging whether a work of art is good or bad.'"

"When you criticize others, please think about it: not everyone has the same advantages as you."

Gu Weijing relayed Nick's words.

"When you criticize others, please think about whether you can do the same thing yourself."

"Even I use money to determine the artistic value of a work of art, so what right do I have to accuse others of hypocrisy?"

Gu Weijing said to Mr. Sloth.

“A work of art that sells for 170 euros should naturally be ten times worse than a work that sells for 1700 euros. This is like me wearing a $4 coat. Therefore, I should be a hundred times more sophisticated than those who can’t afford a $400 coat.”

Is there any essential difference between these two things?

The young painter asked very seriously.

Gu Weijing was just feeling pained by his actions, and then he immediately did the same thing again, exactly as he had done.

It's like an alcohol addiction.

You know that being addicted to alcohol is a bad thing; it doesn't bring true happiness, and the result of alcoholism is nothingness.

You just can't seem to quit.

Compared to someone driving a Porsche, the stingy person missed the chance to acquire a great artwork for just 5 euros.

He himself is the truly absurd one.

Miao Angwen, Gu Lin... they are like mirrors reflecting life.

Why didn't Gu Weijing become like them? Was it because he was braver than them, or because he was luckier? Whenever Gu Weijing examines his own heart, he even has to face this question.

Did Miao Angwen not know that Hao Ge's gift was poisoned?
Doesn't Gu Lin know that gambling is bad? All the chips you win at the gambling table are just an illusion, and in the end, you will lose everything.

Perhaps they are too young to know.

Perhaps they know.

They were still lured deeper and deeper by the lure of money, and eventually lost themselves.

It is said that every gambler will despise themselves from the bottom of their heart and from the depths of their soul. All gamblers will thoroughly reflect on the sinfulness of their actions. They will cry and beg for forgiveness, they will curse themselves for not being human, they will kneel on the ground and kowtow, they will cut off one of their fingers and swear that they will never gamble again.

These confessions.

These tears.

These are heart-wrenching confessions.

Honestly—it wasn't all fake, nor was it all an act; at that moment, they genuinely believed they had seen through the true nature of this money game.

The cruel reality is that many, many of these people will end up sitting at the gambling table again.

They were both detached from it and deeply intoxicated by it, as if two completely different souls resided within them, hating each other—this was probably the cruelest thing in the world.

It only took Gu Weijing a few days to go from regretting that he had ridiculed Miao Angwen to feeling smug about wearing a dress worth tens of thousands of dollars.

It only took Gu Weijing a few minutes to go from telling Mr. Sloth about this in a repentant tone to him subconsciously continuing to use money as the standard for judging the quality of works of art.

From the very core of my being.

he--

Is this painter, who sold his works for £100 million in his twenties, really not a believer in this standard? Doesn't he feel smug about this standard? By this standard, he is one of the most successful painters in human history.

Gu Weijing always felt that he was ridiculous.

He attended international schools from a young age, won a gold medal at the age of eighteen, attended a top art university, studied under Cao Xuan, was represented by Miss Elena, signed with one of the most prestigious galleries in European history, and held a solo exhibition at the Louvre at the age of twenty-one, where his works sold for £100 million.

joke.

Even Picasso didn't get this kind of treatment. When Picasso was 20, he was still living in an attic with his friends. If Gu Weijing keeps crying and complaining about how unfair it is, then he's just being too weak.

seriously.

Please.

What the hell are you pretending to be, Van Gogh? What are you pretending to be, a noble artist who remains defiant amidst the tides of money?

Does Gu Weijing's life have anything to do with Van Gogh's?

Gu Weijing felt that if he were Van Gogh, he would probably have already coughed up a mouthful of blood from his nostrils.

begging.

Mr. Gu, stay away from me.

Isn't Gu Weijing one of the biggest beneficiaries of the capital speculation bubble in the entire modern art market?
Did Van Gogh agree with your statement?

Van Gogh may not have earned as much as Gu Weijing earns in a single day from painting his entire life. Compared to Gu Weijing, the opportunities Van Gogh received in his lifetime were like a single hair on nine oxen.

Someone who only sells one painting in their entire life, someone who could have a comfortable life but chooses to be a wanderer, has every right to criticize the alienation of art by money and disdain it.

What nonsense are you spouting about "me too"?

prostitute.

This is an incredibly apt description. Gu Weijing felt that he was a typical example of someone who acted like a prostitute while pretending to be virtuous.

He might even be one of the driving forces behind using money and consumerism to measure the value of art as a whole.

Ask yourself honestly, does the incomparably noble Gu Weijing, the Gu Weijing who regards money as dirt, the Gu Weijing who criticizes the Elena family for only throwing money at people, really dislike those olive branches with a long string of zeros that galleries are throwing at him?

Does he really dislike the fact that the heiress of the Elena family is his personal agent?

Stop spouting nonsense.

He enjoys it.

He was enjoying himself immensely; he felt like a balloon filled with hydrogen, as if he wanted to fly all the way to the stars.

Therefore.

Gu Weijing realized how much he loved this life, that being able to sell a painting for £100 million was one of the proudest achievements of his life.

Gu Weijing felt distressed.

There has to be a standard.

Mr. Sloth sensed the melancholy and sadness in Gu Weijing's voice.

"No one can truly exist outside the material world; monetary price is the market's standard for evaluating the artistic value of a work."

"maybe."

Gu Weijing thought for a moment and then slowly said, "I don't know if this standard is right or wrong. But I always feel that, at the very least, material things shouldn't be the only measure of value."

Treat everything as just a money game at a gambling table.

The loser will naturally lose everything—their gold coins, their soul.
And can the winner... win everything?

This is really a very interesting question.

Gu Weijing had seen what it was like for people who lost gambling games—losing everything and causing their families to collapse.

Miao Angwen, Gu Lin...

The problem is, Gu Weijing has also seen people who always win. For example, Brother Hao, Chen Shenglin—from his own worldview, he seems to have been "winning" his whole life.

Everyone is a chip, everyone has a price. He has never lost a single game of cards. With a pistol in one hand and cash in the other, he is invincible.

According to this theory, Brother Hao has never lost a single bet.

He is the God of Gamblers, he is the King of Gamblers, he is Ko Chun with his own background music.

Technically speaking, if this were a contest of gambling skills, Gu Weijing would have no room to struggle.

Old Master Gu Tongxiang understood this much better than Gu Weijing. When the bald man first came to their door, the old man was already planning to pack up his buckets and run away, and the whole family would start a business in Run.

But in the end... Gu Weijing won.

Because Gu Weijing didn't gamble at all.

Gu Weijing said, "I admit defeat," and then took out a mirror from his pocket and stuffed it under Hao Ge's nose, using a powerful spirit and force to force the other party to look in the mirror.

It's like a demon that can't stand the sun seeing sunlight.

Hao looked in the mirror, then vanished in a wisp of smoke. Even setting aside Hao, let's consider betting games that don't necessarily have a strong sense of morality.

art.

It's simply the pure art market.

Picasso, Rothko, Andy Warhol... these are all people who have always been winning and will always be able to win.

Did they really win everything?
What is everything?

If it's about money, then it's probably like this.

If money can represent everything, why does Picasso, even after making a fortune, still not look happy in many of his photographs? He was richer than the Irina family, and at his advanced age, he was still constantly sleeping with young and beautiful women.

Shouldn't you be satisfied by now?
What about Rothko?

In 1950, he earned the equivalent of nearly $300 million today from just a few paintings. Why wasn't he happy? Why did he treat himself so cruelly despite having a serious heart condition, smoking as many as 20 cigarettes a day and drinking two bottles of whiskey?
Who is he taking revenge on?
Who is he fighting?

What is he looking for?
"Gu Weijing, have you met Mybis?"

Grandma Sarah gave his art exhibition an A grade. Gu Weijing could almost see that old lady, who had witnessed almost all the rise and fall of the Western art industry over the past half-century, sitting beside him with a full head of white hair, coldly asking him.

The one who loses the bet loses everything.

Whether it's gold coins or souls.

The winner of the bet pockets all the chips on the table, and in the end, everything becomes glittering gold.

Until even his body turned golden.

What about the soul?
So where does the soul go?

This is truly an incredibly strange paradox.

“Our art industry has a set of values ​​that are about wealth, a myth built on money.”

(End of this chapter)