Almighty painter

Chapter 781: The Worm Eye in the Fruit Core
"Gu, you know what?" The bright chestnut eyes stared at him, "I think Van Gogh's paintings are a kind of correction to the comfortable life."

"If appreciating art is like a dental consultation, then seeing Van Gogh's work is like seeing braces. The difference is that this brace does not bind the brushstrokes, lines and colors like teeth bound by wire. They are arranged tightly and neatly, and shine like wax."

The surrounding noise faded away.

When everything is quiet, the voice in one's heart will sound especially clear.

Miss Elena's words once again rang in Gu Weijing's ears.

The other party mentioned, who said that just now?

John Loggins? No, when this art writer was famous in Britain, Van Gogh was just an unknown ordinary painter, perhaps still a monk somewhere.

Did it come from another famous British scholar Simon Schama in later years, a former editor of Oil Painting magazine, or was it just a casual remark by Ms. Anna herself?

He couldn't remember exactly.

What Gu Weijing remembered very clearly was that more than ten hours ago, in the coffee shop on the ground floor of Raffles Hotel, the young art manager held a tray in one hand and the handle of the Gesha coffee cup in the other, revealing his neatly arranged, gleaming teeth as if they had been waxed, and spoke to him.

"——On the contrary, this brace is not used to bind teeth. It is used to bind the restraint itself. Tighten those boring red tapes, and those old artistic views. Use a more intense, passionate, and real gesture. Let the brushstrokes grow freely between the pictures."

"You said Van Gogh was trapped."

The woman looked out the window and gently picked up the coffee cup on the tray. "Only in this way, only by hooping it, hooping it with the iron hoop, and restraining the restraints, can the Van Gogh in the painting...break free."

No.

Gu Weijing suddenly realized that these words must not be just a casual remark made by Miss Elena.

Miss Elena must have read this passage from somewhere.

Because it was said so well.

One hundred points.

It hit the nail on the head and fully expressed the vague feelings in his heart, but he was constrained by his relatively shallow artistic cultivation and was unable to describe it accurately.

Because of this, it is impossible that these words were spoken spontaneously by the other party.

Gu Weijing overcame countless difficulties, endured countless doubts and cold stares, was trapped in the Xihe Guild Hall, and went through countless struggles before he finally became who he is today.

He finally understood what Carroll's "Old Church in a Thunderstorm" meant and what the real Van Gogh was.

Painting is a love letter from one heart to another.

If a person wants to understand these things and feel the deepest thoughts, he needs not only artistic cultivation but also life cultivation.

Miss Irena obviously has no lack of artistic cultivation, so she can talk at length about Van Gogh's letters, the Tower of Babel, and the Old Testament of the Bible.

These are well explained, no problem.

But saying this from the heart?
No.

She doesn't deserve it.

I want to understand something, I want to be able to read and understand, to hear and understand.

You have to experience all of this completely, or at least, you have to fully understand what kind of mood it is.

How could Anna Elena, who was so frivolous and spoiled, understand what it meant to be trapped, and understand what she was saying?

Sitting in a wheelchair and having difficulty walking does not mean you are trapped in life.

For many people, this is true.

It represents difficulties, setbacks and tribulations, it represents fragility and inconvenience, it even represents discrimination and bullying. But it also means bravery, tenacity and strength, and it can also represent the strong belief and rebellious spirit to overcome fate.

But sorry.

For the heir to one of the richest families in Central Europe, for a man with nine zeros after the euro assets in his account, this means absolutely nothing.

There are easily three billion normal, healthy people in the world who would be willing to trade their life circumstances with hers.

Gu Weijing once chatted with a black French tourist in his family's calligraphy and painting shop and practiced speaking. At that time, there was a sedan chair at the door of the shop. It was more than two kilometers long from getting off the sightseeing cruise ship on the Yangon River to the commercial street in the tourist area.

The euros in his wallet were enough to hire two polemen who were much thinner than he was to carry him so that his shoes would not get stained with a speck of dirt.

Miss Elena and her billions of assets can allow her to live like a fairy on the clouds all her life, carried by all living beings. The handmade leather shoes on her feet are not stained with a speck of dirt and are as shiny as new.

She must understand what 300 million euros means, but how could she understand what Van Gogh is, or what it means to be trapped?
Gu Weijing shook his head contemptuously.

Humph.

The young man consciously and accurately saw the truth of the matter.

If a person answers a question that she cannot possibly answer, then she most likely plagiarized someone else's paper and passed it off as her own answer.

but--

"Even if it was copied, it was really good."

Miss Elena's words entered his heart and rang in his ears one by one.

The young woman plucked the strings of the zither with her fingers.

The resonance of the piano cavity.

Send out an echo of the same frequency.

It sounds really good.

……

“It would be very boring to understand a painting only in a very technical and academic way, as a simple arrangement and combination of brushstrokes and colors.” Miss Irena told Gu Weijing. “Van Gogh hated this, and he never felt satisfied with it.”

“Artworks are never just a game of colors, and they never should be.” Facing the oil painting “Water Village People” in front of him in the special exhibition hall of the Esplanade, he said to himself, “It’s not today, and it won’t be in the future.”

"Wu Guanzhong would not like this, and I think Mr. Wu should not be satisfied with just this. This understanding is correct, but not good enough. Some emotions are buried deep in the brushstrokes."

“Just like the theme of this Biennale, it is never satisfied with just depicting the busy, jostling, and crowded flow of people.”

"This interpretation is correct enough but not deep enough. There is some emotion buried deep in the title Hustle and Buste. It's the difference between smoke and fire. It's smoke and firework."

Gu Weijing clasped his arms tightly and frowned.

Rather than refuting what Cui Xiaoming said next to him.

It was more like he was having a conversation across time and space, following what the art manager in the wheelchair had said to him yesterday, with her holding his hand or holding her hand as he continued speaking.

“It’s Pyrotechnics.”

……

"I think Mr. Tonks will like this interpretation." Curator's assistant Bonnie smiled knowingly.

Gu Weijing used these two descriptions to describe the theme of the art exhibition. Neither of them is professional art vocabulary, but both are very clever.

Double entendre.

Smoke and firework, literally means smoke and fireworks. Pyrotechics, on the other hand, is generally used to describe grand fireworks scenes.

Just right.

The extended meanings of these two phrases and words can be used to describe the grand, outstanding, enthusiastic and pyrotechnic works of artists or musicians that fascinate the audience.

This is what Gu Weijing said - he was moved by Wu Guanzhong's works.

of course.

This image is subtly different from the "smoke and fire" that Gu Weijing just described to Cui Xiaoming in Chinese. It is more direct and less lingering.

Gu Weijing's description is quite consistent with the thinking habits of the Western audiences and judges present, and has a little bit of the meaning of fusion of East and West.

In front of them is an oil painting that blends the East and the West. Singapore, from various perspectives of history, culture and geography, is a place where the East and the West blend.

"That's too vague... too vague."

Cui Xiaoming couldn't help shaking his head. A part of him was slightly touched when Gu Weijing just talked about the difference between smoke and fire. He was not a mediocre person.

In the south of France or on the outskirts of the art street in Manhattan, New York, people can easily run into a thousand unknown men and poor women who work in the art industry and claim to be painters. Each of them has the style of a great artist. From the perspective of statistical probability, in the end, in the next few decades, only one of them will be able to display his works in the major art museums in the south of France, or successfully sign a contract with the Gagosian Gallery a street away.

Art critics say that to become such a person, artistic talent, artistic resources, and appropriate luck are all indispensable.

And in this world, the person who possesses all three qualities is perhaps only one in a thousand.

Cui Xiaoming is such a lucky person.

Like Picasso, he has been painting since he was a child. Like Picasso, he has been noticed and praised since he was a child. His talent is unquestionable.

He also has a father who is a well-known local professional painter and an artist mother who is a senior manager of an art museum, just like Picasso. (Picasso's father was a painter and museum manager.) This is both his natural artistic resources and his natural luck.

Cui Xiaoming's parents may not be as good as Sakai Katsuko's father, who is one of the top artists in the field and one of the most heavyweight men in Asia. Compared with Picasso's original family, they are not bad.

and so.

He has always firmly believed that there is no reason why he cannot be the next Wu Guanzhong or the next Picasso.

Even better.

This is probably an era where artists are treated the best and have the highest social status.

Wu Guanzhong came from a poor family. At the age of 18, he was still living on steamed bread and studying to become an electrical technician, relying on a scholarship he received for getting first place in the exam. The other party moved around because he was afraid that if he went to paint, he would not be able to bring enough income to the family.

When Cui Xiaoming was 18 years old, he had already received contracts from more than one European gallery, and some even promised that if he signed, they would hold his first solo exhibition in Berlin within two years.

He refused.

The other guy wasn’t good enough and this wasn’t the best start to his career he could have gotten.

In the past few years, we have received more and more contracts, including those from industry giants and major promoters of the art market. Top galleries that have no shortage of money and resources could not help but extend olive branches.

The long list of candidates even includes the Ma Shi Gallery.

A formal Category B contract, five-year contract, 10 euros signing fee.

One hundred thousand euros was not the highest offer Cui Xiaoming received, but it was from the Ma Shi Gallery. Such a serious super gallery was willing to pay a check of one hundred thousand euros to buy him for five years, which was very telling. Many unknown painters in their forties, fifties, and sixties who have worked in this industry for their entire lives have sold less than half of this figure for all their works.

At that time, even his mother, Leonie, who was an insider in the industry, was persuaded by the other party's scout agent and thought that this contract was very good.

It turned out that Cui Xiaoming himself refused again.

How many painters have been looking forward to becoming a member of a large gallery all their lives? Kazunari Sakai, who was in his twenties, was about to be kicked out of the Ota Art Gallery and was crying and ready to die with a charcoal basin. Cui Xiaoming, who was in his twenties, actually took the initiative to reject the formal contract with the Ma Shi Gallery.

A dead skinny camel is bigger than a horse.

Although Ota Art Gallery has the historical record of being the most valuable female artist, Yayoi Kusama.

But in terms of the number of galleries, artistic heritage, connections in the collecting community, influence in the industry, and even asset size, no matter how thin the assets of the declining Metz Gallery are, this family gallery that once pioneered the modern gallery industry can still surpass the Daejeon Art Gallery.

The mother conveyed the words of the scout agent, saying that as long as Cui Xiaoming develops well and as long as Ma Shisanshi values ​​him enough, they can discuss the next contract in five years.

Cui Xiaoming can even use this springboard to seek an opportunity to hold a solo exhibition in a truly top art museum.

This is a treatment that only those first-line masters worth millions can enjoy.

It touched Cui Xiaoming's parents, but failed to touch Cui Xiaoming himself.

The Marsh Gallery was really good enough, but for Cui Xiaoming, it was still not the best career start he could have ever gotten.

A personal exhibition at a top art exhibition is undoubtedly the most beautiful fantasy in life. Although five or ten years is not a long time, there are too many variables.

The life of a successful painter is like turning into a dragon while walking on the sea.

Money is the flow of water around.

Starting from a stream on the snowy mountain, it rushes all the way, spring rain, winter rain, four seasons of rushing, the more it accumulates, the more powerful it becomes. It is possible that it will rush straight into the sea in one go, and from then on it will ride on the clouds and mist, and bring rain. It is possible that it will hit a dam somewhere, and make a few circles with a bloody head.

If you are even more unlucky, you may end up in a dry river after twists and turns, or even fall into a small fish pond.

Half of my life has been wasted.

If one could gather up enough strength at the beginning and leap over the Dragon Gate with a somersault, wouldn't it be much better than drawing for five to ten years and then slowly swimming a thousand eight hundred miles?
Like now, winning the Singapore Biennale and then signing with Gagosian.

He really had a career start as legendary as Picasso's, or even better.

This is the best treatment you deserve.

Logically speaking, Cui Xiaoming has both resources and talent. At such a young age, most of the world's galleries are lined up in front of him for him to choose from, just like an emperor choosing his concubine. As someone who has not experienced any of the hardships that artists often have to endure, he would not have any worries or troubles, let alone doubt himself.

Cui Xiaoming is indeed not inferior, not fragile, and does not doubt himself.

He just had a deep hidden doubt.

A bright and beautiful apple, with a small worm-eye-like puzzle on the core wrapped in flesh.

He was a little confused about Wu Guanzhong's paintings, just like he was a little confused about Van Gogh's paintings.

It’s not that I can’t understand.

He copied countless works of Van Gogh, wheat fields with skylarks flying over, burning sunflowers, and colorful portraits like cartoons...

It is inevitable that some brushstrokes are immature, some colors are not accurate, and some lines are not twisted strongly enough.

It is normal to have various small problems.

How old is he?

Cui Xiaoming certainly wouldn't doubt himself because of this.

Cui Xiaoming was very proud.

He has a talent, he can always draw a realistic shape from the beginning.

Cui Xiaoming was confused.

He has a talent that allows him to always draw very similar things... He is the kind of person who can draw almost exactly the same thing at the beginning, and after copying more than ten or twenty pictures, or after copying for a year or two, he would go back and compare it with the first work, and find that the brushstrokes are more mature, the colors are more accurate, the lines are stronger, the minor problems have been reduced a lot, and the picture has improved a lot.

But it seems to be pretty close.

It's eighty percent like, ninety percent like, but no matter it's eighty percent or ninety percent like, it's not tenty percent like.

This closeness is not about technique, but more about a feeling. It is something he has a vague feeling but cannot fully explain.

This made Cui Xiaoming feel more confused than the pure technical difference.

Deficiencies in technique can be made up with time and caught up with experience, but if you can't even tell what you are missing, how can you catch up?

This also made Cui Xiaoming feel that it was wrong more than the difference in pure technique.

He is standing on the foundation laid by his predecessors.

In his twenties, Van Gogh was still working as a starving rural teacher. In his twenties, Wu Guanzhong was still trying his best to escape the Japanese bomber sirens. Later, he was discriminated against and ridiculed by museum administrators in Paris. His study abroad expenses were embezzled by Kuomintang executives, so he lived in a Belgian dormitory.

They may not even be called painters.

Cui Xiaoming, who is in his twenties, has studied painting for almost twenty years and is popular in Berlin. He has everything he needs.

Why is there any advanced artistic concept that senior painters were able to paint but he cannot?

There is no such truth.

So to Cui Xiaoming, this confusion is like a worm hole in the fruit core.

The worm holes in the fruit core cannot be seen from the outside and therefore do not exist.

The doubts in his heart could not be seen on the screen, could not be explained, could not be described, and therefore did not exist.

But just now.

The insect eye moved a little bit, as if a bug was crawling in it.

(End of this chapter)