Almighty painter

Chapter 967 Anna's Curator's Diary

Regarding how artist Gu Weijing, with the help of agent and curator Anna Elena, built his first solo exhibition from scratch... The following are some first-hand records from the original curatorial logs collected during the writing of this book, "The Power of Art," and archival photos are also collected in the appendix of this book (see Appendix C).

……

Below are two photos.

One photo shows a sophisticated, professional woman in a suit at work.

One of them is the Terminator T800—well, to be precise, it should be a cosplay of Andy Warhol's famous cover photo in Time magazine, with a big leather jacket, hair in an explosive, flamboyant style, a huge pair of sunglasses covering half of his face, and a face full of indifference and domineering.

It looks incredibly cool.

A majestic parrot perched on its shoulder.

(Note: Here, I must mention the help of Ms. Pace Elliott, who served as Ms. Elena's private secretary for many years. Ms. Elliott and Mr. Yang Dekang provided a wealth of firsthand materials during the writing of this book. Without their contributions, this collection of books would not be possible today.)
(Note: The two people pictured above are from Pace Eliot and Yang Dekang's social media pages, respectively. Mr. Yang Dekang has an impressive pet parrot that can recite Keats' poems.)
The following text is excerpted from Anna Elena's curatorial diary, with the content in parentheses being the author's notes from the publication of "The Power of Art"—

……

"September 3, 2018, 30 weeks until the exhibition opens."

"Gu Weijing (often referred to as G in his diary) told me that he was thinking about trying watercolors. What I didn't say was... I had some concerns about this decision. As an agent, I shouldn't usually interfere with his creative inspiration, but I should offer appropriate suggestions and set specific boundaries."

"The boundaries of behavior are also the boundaries of time."

"As a curator, I also have an underlying concern that the presence of too many painting elements may blur the theme of the exhibition itself."

"Last year in Singapore, I stood in front of a work that had too many elements added. I thought it was a failed imitation of Rothko's work—"

(The book includes an image here: a photograph of Rothko's color field abstraction. "Rothko is considered a representative of American abstract painting, and his work 'White Center' once ranked tenth on the list of most expensive artworks sold at auction.")
"The addition of too many elements did not make the work more impressive; instead, it diminished its unique characteristics. A good work, on the other hand, should evoke a powerful feeling even when you stand with your back to it."

"After hesitating, I didn't directly express my opposition. At least I think Gu Weijing's previous work, 'Sunlight Rhapsody,' was a good piece of work."

"A good work of art should be captivating enough." This is the message I left for him on my note this week.

……

"November 16, 2018, 28 weeks until the exhibition opens."

"Almost half a month has passed again. Let's start with the good news: this week, Gu Weijing successfully played the entire theme of 'K265' at an 80 bpm tempo without going off-key, rushing, or dragging the beat. For the next stage, Gabriel has prepared a Baroque-era viola minor key piece. Even without considering octave changes, playing it entirely in first position will probably be quite challenging for G. However, from another perspective, as long as he can play the piece, the simple ensemble recital this weekend can be arranged."

"I'm actually quite optimistic about G's progress in learning the piano."

"But Gu Weijing himself seemed a bit pessimistic—I saw him staring blankly at the piggy bank on the cupboard more than once. In the past two weeks, unfortunately, no art students have generously supported his music career."

"I tried asking him how his classmates were reacting. He told me sadly that there was no reaction at all. Every time he practiced the piano in the woods, he didn't see a single person, which was really worrying."

(The book includes an image of a light yellow viola, labeled "Brass Sandpiper," the original viola used by artist Gu Weijing.)
"Nonsense! No reaction at all? How could that be? He's taking classes in the watercolor department, while I'm studying photography under Professor Kinsman. Our campus lives barely overlapped, and our daily circles were even quite far apart. Nevertheless, I still heard news about Gu Weijing in class. My classmates said that the art prodigy who won the biennial gold medal before he even entered the university, after a year of lukewarm success, gave up hope of studying watercolor and now seems to have switched to performance art."

"I've heard people talk about this many times, including Mr. Kinsman. He sighed and thought that Kozens had successfully driven someone crazy again this year, and the school counseling center should have intervened sooner."

"Gu Weijing looked at me, and I looked at him. I remembered my mentor's compassionate eyes, and I felt the truth was too cruel, so I didn't point out his mistake."

"..."

"Another piece of bad news is that the frustration also spilled over into the artwork."

"We had a discussion."

"The painting is quite different from the ideal result I envisioned. Watercolor is undoubtedly a highly technical painting method, and I personally prefer the expressive power of oil painting. In my mind, oil painting is like a piano, with the widest range and the most diverse applications, and it receives more attention from collectors and critics. Watercolor... Watercolor is like a violin."

"It has its own unique range, and the sound of the bow pulling the strings is varied and lingering. The piano can imitate it to a certain extent, but... the sound effect conveyed by pressing the sustain pedal cannot be completely reproduced."

"The unique clarity and luminosity of watercolor is difficult to completely replace with the brushstrokes of oil painting. Of course, ultimately, it still comes down to the artist's personal expressive abilities. I always felt that although G studied watercolor, his strengths and passions seemed to be more concentrated in oil painting and Chinese painting..."

(There are several corrections here. At the end of the page, a question mark, a dash, and "?—this also somewhat dispelled my doubts.")
"You reap what you sow. Watercolor techniques are G's relative weakness, which is normal."

"Sunlight Rhapsody is a work that focuses more on composition than on brushstrokes. But now, Gu told me that he can't fully recreate the rich and complex colors he felt when he stood on the bridge of art and looked at the sunset. He has such a work in his mind, but he 'can't paint it properly.'"

"The job of an art dealer is to say to the other party at the right time and in the right place, 'Hey, that's enough, let's do it another way, okay?'"

"This is a very effective and necessary thing. Like our previous argument about Debussy... When you can't find joy or meaning, perhaps you should tell yourself—"

"Now, little artist, that's enough for now. We need to change the way we play."

……

"The following day's record—"

“I think you draw very well,” I said.

"I have a new realization: the responsibility of an agent and curator is not only to set boundaries for artists and tell them to stop there, but also to break those boundaries and tell them to keep going."

"Last night I thought about it for a long time. I collected all the watercolor sketches he had drawn in the past two weeks, put them together, and looked at them one by one."

"I think G is finding himself in color." "I've seen much better watercolors than this. I've seen how some people's work resembles others, like a sharp scalpel, like Turner, like Dürer, or even like Menzel, depicting even the smallest whiskers of a cat with exquisite detail. This is certainly a moving way of creating color."

"However, the persistence in finding oneself in color is equally moving."

"I have a picture in my mind, but my drawing is 'not good enough'—I've said this to myself countless times. Isn't that right?"

"As you can see, I work frantically, but so far there has been no satisfactory result. I hope these thorns will eventually bloom into white flowers. If so, these painful struggles will be like the contractions of childbirth, and after the pain, there will be a joyful outcome." — This is what I chose to write to G this week. 140 years ago, in the same week of September in 1880, Vincent van Gogh wrote these words in a letter, which were also words written to the two of us 140 years later.

(Attached photo: A picture of a note pinned to a soft fabric board in a room. During the curatorial process, Ms. Elena would write such a note to Gu Weijing every week.)
(Note: If you look closely, you can see a photograph of Deckard Anlun in the upper right corner of the board, with some notes pinned directly to the photograph. He was the most important asset of the Hermès Gallery at the time.)
……

「2018年9月26日，距离展览还有27（划去）32周。」

"I don't know if this can be considered lucky. We had seriously discussed the dates of the exhibition and finally decided not to postpone it. However, just now I received a call from Maes III. The museum has postponed the venue by a month due to transportation and exhibition setup issues."

"This kind of thing is common for curators, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps I haven't been taking August out enough these past few days. He seems a little nervous. Maybe we should take him to the vet."

"G's progress looks good. At least, all the drawings have been completed, and further improvements are ongoing."

……

September 29, 2018.

"Today, the exhibition has officially entered the preliminary preparation stage, and the specific schedule has been completed. It will open on June 7, 2019, which is the first week after Ramadan in the local area, and will last for three months. However, it also happens to coincide with the hot season in the desert area, so hopefully it will not affect the exhibition itself."

"The preliminary planning work for the Maestro Gallery has already begun. I will be flying to Abu Dhabi tomorrow specifically for this purpose."

"Also, I think I've figured out what's making August nervous; he's always been a very perceptive dog—(Miss Elena emphasized three dots on the paper.)"

"Gu Weijing's cat is back!"

(The book includes two pictures: one of Anna Elena as a student, sitting on a chair in her family estate, holding a puppy; and the other of an extremely obese cat standing next to an incredibly ugly litter box.)
"It took August's food bowl, and I got angry. It's not like it doesn't have its own."

"I've never seen a cat bully people like this!"

……

What followed was almost a series of sharp commentary diaries.

Out of some kind of morbid curiosity, or perhaps to record anecdotes from the lives of artists, just like Mr. Yang Dekang's parrot that could recite the famous poem "Ode to Melancholy" by the Romantic poet.

The article preserved all of these critical diary entries verbatim.

The contents almost entirely document how Awang and August chased each other back and forth on the ranch, which Miss Elena was simply too busy to keep up with.

She is thousands of miles away.

While the woman was busy with the art exhibition, she made an overnight inspection call from Abu Dhabi, remotely directing Elliott to make sure the cats and dogs that were constantly tangling together were separated.

They were terrified that their dog had been bullied by the fat neighbor.

Gu Weijing said that his cat is very well-behaved when it has food; that's just its personality. August and Awang are both very smart, and they are just playing around.

Keep a calm and composed mindset.

It's not certain who's bullying whom; it's August who keeps touching Awang's canned food inappropriately, showing absolutely no sense of boundaries.

"Do you like people who have no boundaries? Double standards."

Miss Elena told Gu Weijing to shut up.

The two had a minor argument over their respective cats and dogs, neither willing to back down. They turned around angrily and found that after the cat and dog had eaten and drunk their fill, they had run off to the lawn to scare the cows, with Elliott watching over them.

Until mid-October.

After Anna flew back from the Middle East once again, the preliminary preparations and on-site arrangements were all settled, and she began to focus her attention on the artwork itself.

During this month.

Gu Weijing's drawings have once again shown considerable improvement.

……

"November 1, 2018, 26 weeks until the exhibition opens."

"The wait paid off very well—in my clear work, I saw the sunlight and the surface of the Seine swirling together. Not just that one painting, but many of the paintings in the exhibition."

"Over the past month, Gu Weijing has repainted almost all the works in the exhibition. I have seen a breakthrough. In terms of technique, the visual quality of those oil paintings is no less than that of 'Human Noise' that I saw in Singapore."

"in addition--"

"Texture also has another layer of meaning."

(End of this chapter)