Almighty painter

Chapter 789 Meaning
Having said that, Anna's focus has never been on the valuable Picasso painting.

It is just like the sculpture stand carefully designed by CDX Gallery in the Esplanade.

The purpose of making the booth is just to hold exhibits. The metal extracted from the tin plating of tens of thousands of old Coca-Cola cans and the patterns carefully carved by the sculptor cannot change the fundamental purpose of its original design.

The woman believes that the problem with many modern artworks is precisely that they confuse form with purpose.

It’s not that exquisite form itself is meaningless. Formal beauty is important. However, if there is only gorgeous form but no surging emotions or profound social perspective to “suppress” the form.

Then.

It cannot be stabilized.

One end of the scale is loaded with too much, a thousand layers of building blocks, and the other end is just air.

It will soon overturn and capsize in the restless beauty of form.

Anna herself likes to call this the "Santiago" fallacy.

The "Santiago" was once the largest, most gorgeous, and heaviest-draft sailing battleship ever built by the Spanish Armada during the Age of Discovery. It had four main decks made of the finest hardwood, more than 300 cannons of various calibers, and was decorated with pure gold statues. The naval officers on board ate their meals with silver tableware.

The beauty of various shapes had been accumulated to the extreme, but because the counterweight was not designed well, it was overturned by strong winds when it left the port for the first time.

Miss Elena would naturally not make such a mistake.

The most important purpose of sticky notes is to carry text. Without the carrier of the recorded content, it loses its meaning to the owner. No matter if the paper is torn from the bedside of a hotel or is so valuable that it can buy an entire hotel - its mission is just to highlight the existence of the text on it.

"From any perspective, the words you wrote on a painting worth tens of millions of euros the morning before you turned yourself in must have meant something special."

Driven by strong curiosity, at the end of the interview, Anna turned the topic back to the question at the beginning of the interview -

"What prompted you to write such a passage? This question carries a confusion about fate and a strong desire to find a sense of security... What triggered you to make such a sigh? This is not your own feeling, right?"

The woman asked in a series of questions.

"If it's inconvenient to say, just talk about what you can say and what's on your mind."

Anna glanced at Officer Dan next to her.

"I know where the line is, don't meddle in other people's business" - she instructed with her eyes.

Koko's father hesitated for a moment but did not stop her.

"There should be nothing that cannot be said. The other day, I saw a painting. I thought it was a painting for me, but it was actually a work he painted for himself."

The middle-aged man said calmly, "But in front of that work, I was defeated."

"It's as simple as that."

"I was devastated. I fell to my knees, tears streaming down my face."

Chen Shenglin calmly admitted his failure.

"It's not so much that I decided to turn myself in that morning, but rather that the work that was presented to me that morning... arrested me."

"You were arrested for a painting? Excuse me, Officer Dan may be very brave, but he is probably not a master of painting, am I wrong?"

Anna raised her eyes again and glanced at Officer Dan who was watching from the sidelines, and this time there was a look of scrutiny in her eyes.

Dan Minming's face turned red and his eyes shyly moved to the window to count the little sparrows on the electric poles.

"We all know who wrote that, don't we?" the middle-aged man said. "This isn't a puzzle at all. I've already written the answer on the surface."

"Mr. G defeated you and arrested you with just one work."

Anna pursed her lips.

"It's amazing, it's like an incredible magic. Legend has it that Picasso's works once made high-ranking German officers who occupied Paris leave in shame. But this is just a rumor. The scene you described seems to have turned the rumor into reality?"

Her tone was somewhere between admiration and questioning, and it was unclear which one came out stronger.

"That's not a question I should answer."

The middle-aged man asked rhetorically.

"You are the new manager of the visual arts section of Oil Painting magazine, Miss. Aren't you the person who believes most in the power of art?"

Anna thought for a moment.

She was convinced.

"I want to see the painting. No matter what the conditions are, I want to see the painting." As she said this, Miss Elena looked at Officer Dan who was counting sparrows outside the window.

The police officer shrugged.

"So far, the works you mentioned have not been found in the list of works seized from Xihe Hall." Dan Minming cleared his throat, and noticing the woman's disappointed look, he quickly added: "But you may be interested. We did find a lot of precious works of art. If you want to see the Picasso--"

"Describe the painting to me."

Miss Elena turned her attention back to the middle-aged man on the other end of the phone.

If she wanted to see Picasso's precious works, Anna needed to go home instead of coming here.

Anna was not too curious about Picasso's famous painting worth 3000 million euros.

She was only curious about Mr. G and the work that "broke" Haoge's psychological defenses.

"It's a medium-sized painting..."

"Wait, let me confirm, you mean oil painting, right?"

Anna caught another word she wasn't expecting.

"Yes, oil paintings, impressionist oil paintings." Chen Shenglin said with a hint of confusion, "Any questions?"

"No, fine, please continue. What is it about?"

The woman tilted her head and wrote down the word "Impressionist oil painting" in her notebook.

She didn't expect it to be an oil painting. She thought it would be a more Eastern-style work, a Chinese painting, or a silk painting or something like that.

"A person is sitting on the sofa." The middle-aged man said in a very complicated tone.

The emotion in his tone was far greater than the person sitting on the sofa could express in just a few words.

Anna listened attentively, wanting to get more, but found that the man on the other end of the phone stopped talking.

"what's next?"

The woman demanded.

"No, it's not a complex work. A man is sitting on a sofa, and the light and dark are interweaving. That's it."

"Uh..." Anna was stunned for a moment, "I want to hear more, please speak more clearly."

Chen Shenglin said in a matter-of-fact tone: "Miss, what else do you want to hear? Picasso's priceless oil painting "Bust of a Woman". If you want to describe it, the content of the painting is just its name, Bust of a Woman."

"But the meaning of that work cannot be described by a bust of a woman. It is one of Picasso's classic works of Cubism. The picture is -"

Anna immediately pointed out the problem in Hao Ge's words.

"I understand what you mean." Chen Shenglin interrupted Anna's story: "But you don't understand what I mean."

"What kind of answer do you want to hear? A technical explanation? The significance of Impressionist painting, the treatment of light in painting, the science of color... I make a living by counterfeiting artworks, and you, Miss Elena, are the art director of the most authoritative publication in the industry."

The middle-aged man asked back, "Seriously? You don't need me to explain to you the significance of the brushstrokes of Impressionist painting. I think the Impressionist works that interweave light and darkness have already made it very clear what I want to say."

"And what you want to hear is something else, something deeper?"

Chen Shenglin paused.

"Then I can't tell."

"You can only understand my feelings when you actually see the work. I can use a thousand words to describe the painting, but I can't really describe to you what it brings to me. It's like a green hat, a yellow brim, a red face. They can only summarize the colors that Picasso painted on the painting, but they can't express what it really means—"

“Noble works cannot be described by critics; they speak for themselves.”

The middle-aged man seemed to smile.

"These are the words written by your Elena family themselves."

"Okay, thank you for your statement. I think I have learned what I want to know. Our interview is over."

After a while.

Anna closed the pen and nodded in thanks.

“I hope you can find the courage to weigh yourself on the scales of life in the midst of pain.”

……

"It's 15 minutes earlier than we expected. According to your request, our next trip is to the Hlaingda District, a charity relief organization called Good Luck Orphanage. The security team is ready. After the end, we will not make any stops and the convoy will return directly to Yangon International Airport..."

Secretary Elliot leaned over to his employer's ear and whispered, "The fat lady from the Schönbrunn Office was shaking hands with the local police officer from the China-Laos-Myanmar-Thailand Office and explaining some finishing touches."

Anna nodded.

She handed the recorder to her secretary, browsed through the notebook at hand, and reviewed the interview in her mind.

"Ms. Elena. Can I ask you one last question as well?"

Just as the woman was about to leave, the phone on the table suddenly rang. It was Brother Hao, whom she thought had ended the call.

Elliot frowned.

Anna waved her hand.

"Go ahead. I'm listening."

The woman was tidying up the things on the table.

"You said that when you judge whether something is good or bad, you will use the current social values ​​as the standard. But when you understand the ancients, you will have sympathy for the times. This will make you more aware of who you are."

"Correct."

"I want to ask about the history of Elena's family's rise to power. Are the blood stains on your estates and properties in Australia and Africa good or bad?"

"bad."

"You said that Ms. K was only an ancient person. Then I want to ask, are you, Anna Elena, an ancient person or a modern person?"

"I don't ask others, I don't ask history, I only ask you."

The question is very strange.

But the woman understood the other party's hidden meaning.

She put the notebook back into her handbag and spoke slowly.

“I donated the family collection.”

"What does it matter? What change will it have on your life? Whether you have a fortune of 10 billion euros, 5 billion euros, or 10 billion euros, it will hardly have any impact on your life. You are still the distinguished Miss Elena, one of the richest heiresses in the world. And you cannot change the dark side of your family history."

“Don’t say that you are sitting here not because your last name is Elena, but because you donated the Elena family’s collection. No matter how you describe yourself, the reason you are the director of the visual arts column of Oil Painting is because you have wealth stained with the blood of your ancestors.”

"What about the other half, the more valuable part? Aren't you still enjoying it every day with peace of mind?"

Anna said nothing more.

"I'm not blaming you, Miss Elena." Chen Shenglin sounded a little emotional, "It's just that Mr. G once told me that turning a blind eye and letting a starving person take an orange out of his pocket to eat, and becoming rich enough to rival a country by doing evil, are two completely different concepts. I said he didn't understand, he had never owned real wealth, so he didn't know its alluring charm."

“When a person is faced with a huge amount of wealth, no one would be willing to give it up.”

The woman was silent.

"You said that Ms. K was Miss Elena for half her life, but when she gave it all up, pursued art, and bravely walked into that cellar, she truly became Kara."

"For you, it seems that the pursuit of artistic ideals is only worth donating tens of thousands of your collections, but not worth giving up becoming Miss Elena. Is that right?"

Anna still didn't speak.

She was so sharp-tongued that she could easily resolve every attack from Brother Hao just now.

But not this time.

That's not the problem.

She could no more answer this question than she could deny that buying land from colonists was a mild crime against the native Africans.

Because it's the truth.

She defeated Brother Hao, but his questioning also pierced her heart.

Ms. K may have the right to quibble.

but she.

Anna Elena.

She never has.

"Mr. G told me that even if I put a gun to his head, he would still look down on me. I was not forced to go along with the gang just because a gun was pointed at my head. He chose to let me shoot. So, Ms. Elena, are you going to tell me that you had no choice?" Brother Hao seemed to have found some kind of pleasure and asked with a smile.

"Yes."

Anna suddenly sighed.

"You're right. Sometimes I always feel like I'm trapped by something, but I don't have the courage to get out of the cage. I know that Elena's family has a shady history, but I don't have the courage to give up the wealth. Sometimes I get tired of the intrigues and calculations with Sir Brown in Oil Painting magazine, but I don't have the courage to give up my fame."

“Life is a vanity fair.”

"You're right. Not everyone is brave enough to walk into the cellar."

"I haven't found my courage yet. Maybe I can't find it for the time being, or maybe I will never find it in my lifetime. I'm not that brave a person." The woman stared at her own face through the window glass.

"Pretentious, arrogant, and hypocritical."

She said faintly: "This is the other side of my personality. Whether I like it or not, it is there."

"One day, he claimed something, but when something really happened to him, he showed a completely different attitude."

Miss Elena smiled sarcastically.

"That's always been very Elena, isn't it?"

Anna's sharp comments always have a dry sense of humor.

Kara von Elena—minus the honorific "von" in her surname.

"Kara" and "Irina".

A common name that anyone can use and has a high duplication rate, attached to a high-ranking earl surname that has been passed down in the Alps for 600 years and blessed by God.

A flashy life of a countess, interspersed with a short period of dark and miserable life, like many common people of that era.

Which one better represents true courage?

Which one is it?

Can it represent true nobility?
"Then I'll give you the same words."

As a farewell to their first and last meeting in life, the forgery godfather of the underground art world said to the queen of the European art world:

"I hope you can find the courage to weigh yourself on the scales of life amidst your pain. Miss Anna Elena."

This seems like a curse.

It seems like a blessing.

Perhaps people can always recognize who they are in pain. Perhaps people always have to weigh their souls again and again to find the weight of the word "love".

Equivalent exchange.

It has always been like this.
-
“What does love really mean?”

When he hung up the phone and put the phone back in his pocket, this thought flashed through Gu Weijing's mind.

He had just called Katsuko Sakai. Farewell, breakup, meeting, art exhibition, conversation... It seemed that both of them had thousands of words to say, and the moment the call was connected, they both seemed a little silent, not knowing how to start.

I wrote the letter over and over in my mind, revised it again and again, and even the salutation at the beginning of the letter was practiced over and over again.

At last.

The moment before you put the letter into the envelope, you only stuffed a thick piece of white paper inside.

It's hard to describe the feeling, they haven't become strangers, so this isn't the kind of awkward silence that happens when exes meet.

But all the silence, no matter how awkward it is.

It is all speechless.

This silence lasted for a long time on the phone. Finally, Katsuko Sakai smiled and gave an address. She said she knew a good cafe in the seaside area and if he was free, they could meet there.

Gu Weijing said that Awang has become very fat, and he will take Awang for a comprehensive physical examination later to rule out fatty liver, but it may take some time.

Katsuko Sakai agreed.

After the call ended, Gu Weijing kept thinking about Sakai Katsuko's face in his heart, wondering what "love" had brought them.

At the two ends of the scale, there is either more happiness or more pain.

Love is another multiple weight.

(End of this chapter)