Almighty painter

Chapter 792 Smile
Anna sat in the classroom, watching the video playing on the screen and the smiles on everyone's faces.

She was full of thoughts.

At that time, a large number of traditional media companies in the English-speaking world rushed into the podcast industry with huge investments. Audio programs were becoming increasingly popular, and various capital myths were constantly born.

Miss Elena has already started planning to create "Mr. Sloth's Art Salon".

While exercising every day, Miss Elena listens to some popular shows on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts and Spotify.

There are art ones, but more are related to non-art fields. She listens to all kinds of content, including current affairs, society, and sports. Most of them are very mainstream podcasts in Europe and the United States.

Miss Elena wanted to know how these people made their shows and why they were able to gain fans and success.

Anna quickly summed up a rule - people always want to listen to what they like.

In general, the more the content conforms to traditional stereotypes, the more it will attract right-wing conservative audiences.

How Trump became great again, why anyone in the world wants to be an American, a former F-16 fighter pilot tells how he played his opponents like a clown in the movie "Top Gun". An EU passport can allow you to do whatever you want to any young girl who wants to immigrate to places like the Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia as a white loser old man...

The top podcasters don't usually say things so bluntly.

When they talked about these issues with the invited guests, this was the subtle meaning conveyed in their words.

It is now the twenty-first century.

Apart from those underground radio programs that talk about lizard people, flat earth theory, geocentrism, Mayan apocalypse, alien abduction and the like, no major anchor will bring up content like Eurocentrism from the pre-colonial era.

But although it is covered with a refined appearance, the basic tone of this narrative style is still the same as it was three hundred years ago.

It doesn’t matter whether it is true or not, or even if there are facts at all.

It's enough that the audience likes to listen to it.

These programs can even be listened to by millions of people each time.

It was very strange. Although they were two completely unrelated things, the feeling of watching the Vlog video made by the senior student on the screen reminded Anna strongly of many of the top English podcast programs she had listened to.

The same excellent production and the same compact arrangement.

The girl, who was accompanied by the priest, raised her arms high and had a faint smile on her face, just like the subtle playfulness in the tone between the host and the guests in those shows.

It is already the 21st century, and no missionary dares to openly say such discriminatory words as those who are not enveloped by the glory of the Lord are barbarians.

but.

The senior's actions of feeding chickens and her smile as she watched the chicks fighting for food always made Anna feel that she was deliberately using her own "civilization" to highlight the "barbarism" of the African children around her.

The underlying tone of this narrative style is no different from three hundred years ago.

Anna felt a strong sense of loss and loneliness.

She didn't want to stand on the moral high ground and blame the senior student for anything.

Perhaps the intangible benefits she gained from this social activity, or even the revenue brought by this video with over a million views, far outweigh what those African children gained.

But she also felt that this kind of thing shouldn't involve such a comparison of interests.

A good thing is a good thing.

To do good is to do good.

Maybe a BIC ballpoint pen can really change a child's life.

Perhaps in addition to bringing more attention to her personal account, the video with a million views also means that one million people will pay attention to the fate of poor children in Africa.

These are all very good things.

The girl just felt bored.

The scene of slender black arms fighting for items from the basket held by the girl in a long skirt remained frozen in Anna's mind for a long time.

“You will rejoice with those who rejoice, and you will weep with those who weep?”

No.

Don't think you can fool Anna easily.

She has been a very emotionally sensitive person since she was a child.

Anna can easily capture all the harmonious and discordant changes brought about by the slight changes in the characters' eyebrows and eyes in the paintings.

She can also distinguish the different meanings expressed by each smile.

Just like the meeting with Gu Weijing yesterday.

The smile he showed when he shook hands with her in the banquet hall, and the sudden laughter he showed before pushing away the check for 300 million euros in the cafe, the two smiles given to her by the same person during the same conversation expressed completely different, even opposite meanings.

The two smiles have nothing to do with each other except that they are both called "smiles".

The latter is complex yet clean, free and resolute, with a sense of loss in the relief. It is definitely not the loss of failure to please her, but a kind of loss that even Anna can only feel but not describe.

He was expressing silent anger with a loud smile.

Anna laughed so hard that she turned and left, but she couldn't help but want to go back and ask why.

And the former.

He was smiling as if he was facing a plate of food.

Anna hated being treated like a dish by others. Although she asked the other person many questions later, she wanted to turn around and leave in her heart at the beginning of that day.

The same contrast of smiles also appeared on the faces of the senior schoolmates and the children around them.

The senior is laughing.

The children around who had grabbed the items were also laughing.

They were all laughing.

But the two smiles are completely different, and they are by no means of the same nature - the two smiles are intertwined in the same shot, and cannot blend into each other and become indistinguishable from each other.

They will just pass by and leave.

Perhaps this is what is called rejoicing with those who rejoice, but it can never bring the warmth that Miss Elena needs.

People can exchange power for smiles, but they cannot get warmth from others' cautious and flattering smiles.

She had seen smiles like this too many times.

It will bring vanity at first, and then double the loneliness.

Miss Elena had neither vanity nor need for more solitude. After listening to the speech, she left a donation and turned away.

Anna knew that she could not get the companionship she wanted from giving alms, and she did not like the atmosphere of the orphanage.

Therefore, she has always been generous in giving money, and sometimes she would attend some charity events related to children's issues as the owner of the Elena Family Foundation, but she rarely actually stayed in an orphanage.

Think about it seriously.

This time, she came to the Good Luck Orphanage in Yangon. It was the first time in many years that a woman stepped into the door of such an institution.

"August, August? Hello, August?"

Secretary Elliot's voice calling out rang in Anna's ears, waking the woman from her trance staring at the outer wall of the orphanage.

Anna noticed that her dog had started to rush!
After August arrived in Singapore, he has been behaving a little strangely since last night.

It jumps back and forth between a state of listless loss and an extremely excited and manic state.

Springer Spaniels are very active in life, love nature, and are kept as outdoor dogs in many places.

The reception room in Elena Manor is larger than the yard of Gu Weijing's house, so there is almost no problem of the dog having no place to roam.

Anna speculated that the big dog felt depressed because it had been locked up in the hotel suite for so long, even though Elliot took it out for a walk every day.

Anyway, this time when I came to Yangon, I was accompanied by a whole security team.

She brought August along to relax as well.

At this moment the dog seemed strangely excited again, as if it were a hound that had smelled a fox's lair - the mistress was just daydreaming when the Springer Spaniel had already poked its head out from the back seat of the SUV.

It bared its teeth, sniffed the air, and wagged its tail.

Then he turned over on all fours and rushed into the orphanage in front.
-
Gu Weijing was standing in front of a special exhibition booth on the second floor of the Binhai Center, staring at the works on the wall in front of him.

His mind was full of thoughts -

"Title of work: New Three Bodies of Buddha (oil on canvas, 2023)"

「Exhibiting Artist: Cui Xiaoming (Guest Artist)」

"Introduction to the work: This is an art exhibit about the past, present and future. The work is inspired by the ancient religious murals and sculptures between the mountains of the Wakhan Corridor. The Wakhan Corridor was once an important part of the Silk Road and has long been influenced by Chinese civilization, Indian civilization, Persian civilization... Cui Xiaoming believes that this work is not only his reflection on whether the weight of luck and money in today's art world has overwhelmed the weight of art itself, but also... This is also a work about expressing "love..."

Gu Weijing paused when he saw this work. Ink lines of various colors intertwined on the painting, and mottled sculptures of Buddha, the goddess of good fortune and luck, and the god of war Ares stood on the mountain wall where light and darkness intertwined.

What you see before you is a truly great work of art.

The ancient statues representing the traces of cultural integration thousands of years ago gaze at the crowds of people in the art gallery.

The painter painted an ancient religious sculpture, but what he expressed was about some grand social issues.

There is only one problem.

Like.

so similar.

Like minds attract each other, and placing artworks with similar compositions together often gives viewers the familiar feeling of looking at mirror-image twins.

There is no work with a similar composition to "New Three Bodies of Buddha" in this exhibition hall, but Gu Weijing has his original version of "Good Luck Orphanage in the Sun" in his heart.

therefore.

No matter how many changes and disguises Cui Xiaoming made on the screen, no matter how many lines of text he wrote on the explanation board next to it to explain the source of his inspiration.

Gu Weijing could see through his details at a glance.

The first moment Gu Weijing saw this work, he felt so familiar with it as if he was seeing his own work.

Gu Weijing is looking at Cui Xiaoming's paintings.

"The Good Luck Orphanage in the Sun" is confronting its shadow cast on a foreign land.

……

Gu Weijing stood beside the booth with his hands crossed and his index finger against his lips.

He wondered what was going on.

It is rare but not uncommon to see "collision of paintings" at an exhibition, with works from different artists having very similar painting styles and temperaments.

Generally speaking, there are two possibilities.

One possibility is that the two of them are a "match made in heaven"; their inspirations, painting methods, and artistic ideas all collided perfectly. It was a coincidence destined by God that the two pianists happened to play the same melody during their improvisation.

Such a possibility does exist.

According to legend, when Degas attended an art salon in Paris, he discovered an oil painting at the exhibition that was "exactly the same" as his own work in terms of painting technique, composition, color, and temperament.

Degas was furious.

He felt that he had been shamelessly plagiarized and that it was too much for a "despicable" imitator to participate in the same art exhibition as him.

He found the imitator -

Edouard Manet.

This coincidence, the beginning of their lifelong entanglement, is also the origin of the most interesting legend in the entire history of art.

Perhaps the friendship between Manet and Monet is more well-known among the historical figures associated with early Impressionism, but the similarities between the careers of Manet and Degas are even greater.

Monet was born into an ordinary middle-class family, and he almost went bankrupt because of his painting.

Manet and Degas were both children of wealthy families. They both experienced the Franco-Prussian War and were both influenced by the works of Velázquez. Their painting styles and subject matter were similar.

Some people say that many of Degas' early paintings are similar to Manet's, while many of Manet's later paintings are more like Degas'.

In addition to the "plagiarism" scandal at the salon exhibition.

There are many different versions of the story of their first meeting. Some versions say that the two knew each other long before that. Manet was attracted by a Velázquez painting in the Louvre. He went to see it every day and then went home to copy it. As a result, there was another person who stood in front of the painting for a long time in a formal outfit. That person was Degas.

……

In short.

There were differences and disputes between Manet and Degas, but they also had endless similarities in their destinies.

There is always a special friendship between the two people.

They competed constantly and encouraged each other. In his letters, Manet believed that Degas would definitely achieve great success.

Degas, who once accused Manet of imitating his paintings, probably never imagined that many years later, he would become one of the largest collectors of Manet's works and even carefully painted many portraits of Manet.

Today it is today.

In many museums in Paris, curators will also put the works of Manet and Degas together, allowing future generations to gaze at these works and also gaze at the love-hate lives of their predecessors.

They "imitate" each other and compete with each other——

They still achieve mutual success today.

With their similarities, they together form part of the romance of art history.

This kind of story is the most beautiful way of unfolding "coincidence". There is another possibility, a much greater possibility... This is not a coincidence at all.

Gu Weijing knew that if he had not happened to meet his half-brother who lived far away from home at the Singapore Biennale, which was worthy of him going to Cui Xiaoming and crying his heart out, then he would have encountered the shadow part of the art world where light and darkness are intertwined.

At the banquet yesterday, Lao Yang reminded himself that he should be more careful of Cui Xiaoming and his son, and said that he would understand what he was talking about when he arrived at the exhibition.

Gu Weijing once didn't understand why.

Later, the female manager of Oil Painting magazine angrily said to herself: "Regarding the suspicion of plagiarism, I really wanted to believe you."

Gu Weijing once thought that this was a boring threat made by a spoiled daughter in anger and humiliation.

this morning.

He and Cui Xiaoming had a debate about whose artistic style was better, more correct, and more advanced.

He thought it was just a normal academic discussion.

At this moment, in front of this picture, Gu Weijing instantly understood the cause and effect.

original.

Many people saw something, but he was the only one who was still kept in the dark.

"I see."

Gu Weijing opened his lips with his index finger and let out a light sigh. At this moment, he recalled the conversation between the two of them just now, and the flattering smile on Cui Xiaoming's face when he just approached him, which was intended to make him let down his guard. He suddenly had a different understanding.

"So petty."

The young man shook his head.

Then he burst out laughing.

Gu Weijing was surprised that he actually laughed softly.

angry?

Probably. When facing this work of Cui Xiaoming, Gu Weijing did feel some anger surging in his heart - some, not much.

But that is far from hatred.

If Gu Weijing had stood here half a year ago, he might have been as furious as Degas who found out that he had been "plagiarized". He would have been so angry that he could not sit still, and he would have felt wronged and wanted to cry.

He would turn around and find the organizer, the curator, or even Mr. Cao or Miss Sakai to testify for him and seek justice for him.

Tang Ning's casual words were enough to break Gu Weijing's heart.

This painting of Cui Xiaoming would probably have made him furious and anxious.

Now Gu Weijing just shook his head.

Maybe this is what is called growth?
When drawing "The Little Prince", Mr. Sloth taught him what true nobility is - true nobility is not being angry.

People will not be angered by the farce performed by clowns on the stage.

When your vulnerable spots are touched, you feel offended, think that things are beyond your control, and feel powerless about life, that is when you get angry and lose your composure.

When Gu Weijing discovered that the Elena family was not the Elena family he had imagined, and Miss Elena was not the Miss Elena he had imagined.

He lost his temper.

While he was laughing loudly towards the sky, Gu Weijing was actually feeling very lost and angry inside.

Because he had no control over the Elena family, and because this matter completely exceeded his beautiful expectations, he was powerless and could only laugh.

Cui Xiaoming was far from being able to truly anger Gu Weijing.

He witnessed the true evil, and Cui Xiaoming's intrigues just seemed funny to him.

(End of this chapter)