Almighty painter

Chapter 970 Gu Weijing Gets Slapped

Chapter 970 Gu Weijing Gets Slapped
After speaking with Mr. Niles, Gu Weijing looked preoccupied.

He changed his travel plans.

Gu Weijing sent a message to his part-time tutor at the Hamburg Conservatory of Music, canceling the evening music class.

The young man drove slowly along the highways that wind around Hamburg after leaving the school. When Gu Weijing was feeling very agitated, he would follow the flow of traffic like this, stopping and starting, watching the city lights slide smoothly across the windshield, turning into a still, flowing river.

Gu Weijing had two voices in his heart.

A voice roared.

“He looks down on me, how dare he look down on me… This guy… This guy… I will never allow him to treat me like this. Who does he think he is? Who does he think he is?”

Niles was the first teacher to treat his teacher this way.

From small to large.

This was the first time Gu Weijing had encountered something like this. He could say without being self-deprecating that throughout his student years, in the eyes of all his teachers, he was the kind of likable, well-behaved child and good student.

This is the greatest source of his pride.

Throughout his studies, Gu Weijing has consistently gained a sense of recognition.

Many artists' paths to education are fraught with difficulties and hardships. Qiu Ying came from a humble background and made a living as a lacquerer. Van Gogh, in his early years, wanted to systematically study watercolor, sketching, and printmaking techniques, but hesitated to make a decision because the tuition fees for professional art schools in France were too high.

Tell the truth.

Gu Weijing had never experienced anything like the hardships of standing in the snow outside a teacher's door.

To put it in a slightly self-aggrandizing way, his art learning experience during his student days was more like Picasso's.

Picasso's father was an art teacher and museum director. He grew up surrounded by the loving gaze and admiring praise of teachers and elders. When Picasso was eight, his father, impressed by his son's talent, taught him his own paintbrushes and palette, patting him on the head and saying he had nothing more to teach him, but that Picasso might have to teach him in the future. At fourteen, Picasso moved to Barcelona to attend the Academy of Fine Arts. He picked up a paintbrush and painted, and the examiner exclaimed, "Wow, amazing! Why don't you just go straight to the advanced class, young master?"

He won a gold medal at the age of 17.

His uncle thought Picasso was talented and offered to sponsor him to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid.

……

His family wasn't wealthy, but his grandfather did everything he could to get him into the best school.

Even if we don't count the time we met Cao Xuan.

Gu Weijing was also highly "appreciated" by others at school. Teachers like Wattel didn't ask for a penny and devoted their spare time to give him private tutoring with a spirit of selfless dedication.

Samuel Kertzens? Such a sharp-tongued, volatile character. When recommending outstanding students, should we recommend Gu Weijing, or Gu Weijing?

Even Cao Xuan.

He met Cao Xuan, which, to use a somewhat inappropriate analogy, was like Qiu Ying meeting Wen Zhengming while selling paintings on the street. This was one of the biggest turning points in Qiu Ying's academic journey.

An unknown, unnoticed young man encounters a world-renowned art master and catches his eye. This story seems to be the template for one of the most beloved tales in art history. Such stories, from the Stone Age to the modern era, can be found only a handful throughout the entire history of human art.

Wen Huiming eventually introduced Qiu Ying to Zhou Quan, Tang Bohu's teacher.

Old Cao's fondness, even favoritism, for Gu Weijing was completely undisguised; he directly took him under his wing. As for that childish bet from back then... even if Gu Weijing didn't fulfill it, the worst that could happen was that he would become Lin Tao's apprentice.

No... the worst?
how.

Now he can call Lin Tao "senior brother," and stop treating him like a bean bun? What's the difference? Lin Tao is still one of the most renowned masters and excellent teachers in the world, one you couldn't find even with a lantern. The only difference is whether Titian studied under Bellini, the chief painter of Venice, or his senior brother Giorgione.

There's also Uncle Sakai's family, Miss Elena—Gu Weijing had countless benefactors throughout his academic journey.

Even if it's a negative "catalyst" that puts pressure on Gu Weijing, it's still someone like Tang Ning, who ranks among the top ten most valuable female artists in human history.

This all fueled Gu Weijing's strong sense of vanity.

Gu Weijing may not value money that much, but people always care about something, and he cares a lot about the feeling of being recognized.

Gu Weijing believed he had been sincere enough.

He visited Mr. Niles several times, making private visits and being very polite. When the conversation ended and he realized that he had been rejected by Niles, he felt a strong sense of dissonance between his expectations and reality.

First came disappointment.

Then came a surge of anger.

He sensed the indifference and distance in Niles's tone, even a hint of disdain.

Gu Weijing was actually very angry, but he maintained his last bit of politeness, thanked the other party, and then turned and left.

You rejected me?

Bro, what makes you think you're so great? You're just an associate professor at an art academy. What gives you the right to reject me? Just because you've seen Picasso's collection?

No, don't you read art news?

it is ridiculous.

I just won the gold medal at the Biennale, you know Samuel Kertzens? He even calls me a great painter in class. Cao Xuan? That's my teacher. I'm a contracted painter with Super Gallery.

You probably don't know that in a few months, I will be holding a solo exhibition at a major art museum.

My first solo exhibition was held in the Louvre, and the heiress of the Elena family was my agent.

Is being an associate professor at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts something to be proud of? This isn't the Middle Ages anymore; there are plenty of universities now, and countless people in the world who can teach. Gu Weijing approached Niles because he thought highly of him, not because he absolutely needed him.

He believed he could excel at printmaking and master the craft.

Even if you don't do it well.

It's alright. His viola playing is like performance art. Miss Elena only needs to make one phone call, and even a violin genius like Gabriel will obediently come over and teach him to read the staff note by note.
What gives you the right to act high and mighty and look down on people?

Gu Weijing was willing to learn painting from him, which really showed him respect.

Don't tell me he's just a teacher who can talk a bit about Pop Art and has a cheap copy of a Picasso print. Even if he really did have an original Picasso, so what?
Is it that impressive?

Whether he believes it or not.

If Gu Weijing were willing, he could go to Anna and say that he didn't have a good printmaking teacher, that he was slighted by Niles, and that others were putting on airs and unwilling to teach him.

Forget Niles, what is Niles anyway? If Picasso were still alive, with the connections of the Elena family, he might be able to find Picasso to be his teacher. And if Andy Warhol suddenly came back to life, Andy Warhol's skeleton would come running with a small blackboard to give him lessons.

When Gu Weijing left, he even felt a hint of contemptuous mockery.

Hey.

“Mr. Niles, you never know what you’ve just missed.”

Gu Weijing may not have been fully aware of the source of his anger, but he could clearly feel the immense displeasure surging within him.

The pain of being directly hurt and rejected made him feel as if a ferocious beast was roaring inside him.

He even imagined that one day, when someone was going to write a biography of Gu Weijing, he would tell this story in a playful manner, or mention it casually at an art exhibition that symbolized success.

An arrogant person who sees a pearl but does not recognize it.

He wanted Niles to be a footnote to Gu Weijing's life, like the villainous clowns in art history.

...The other side.

A calm rationality resided within Gu Weijing, a voice reminding him. Perhaps it came from Niles, perhaps from the unwavering dedication of the taciturn Ming Dynasty sculptor in his memory, or perhaps from Gu Weijing himself.

"Hey, you can't do that. Think about it seriously, are they really wrong?"

One is a violent flame.

One is a faint chill.

Two completely opposite emotions were pulling at Gu Weijing, like two completely opposite forces acting on his calves, one wanting him to slam on the accelerator and go for a thrilling drive.

Let your anger and passion be completely released.

Just admit it.

Once you acknowledge that Niles is an arrogant and blind man, everything makes sense.

He made no mistakes.

The other one held his foot firmly, causing him a stifling, oppressive feeling. If Niles wasn't wrong, then... this meant a devaluation of Gu Weijing's self-worth.

Gu Weijing kept pressing the accelerator intermittently on the deserted, wide street in the afternoon.

The poor 1.2-liter diesel engine, which had just been repaired, was repeatedly pushed to the red line, making a sound like a farm tractor, and then... its power was suddenly cut off, and it quickly plummeted back to the bottom as if it had lost all its strength, whimpering pitifully.

Tututu, umm umm.

Sponsored by Mr. Yang, this fully synthetic engine oil withstood the test of rapid changes in engine output and diligently lubricated the machinery. It truly is a high-quality oil from Mr. Yang.

But driving this car was not a pleasant experience either.

The car rounded a river bridge over a river in the western suburbs of Hamburg, turning towards the sunlight. Gu Weijing felt uncomfortable from the glare and reached his hand upwards.

The sun visor above the driver's seat was flipped open.

Gu Weijing was stunned.
-
The Polo drove off the road along a dirt path worn into the ground by passing vehicles and came to a stop by the river.

Gu Weijing turned off the engine, sat in the driver's seat, and looked up at the road ahead.

The car is an older model, and many interior parts are starting to show signs of wear. When he just flipped up the sun visor, the side mirror attached to the visor also unfolded.

Gu Weijing looked at his face in the mirror.

A calm, distorted, anxious face.

On the surface, he appeared calm and unaffected, his gaze fixed on the distant void. However, Gu Weijing saw distortion and anxiety in his eyes.

On the cruise ship that day, Gu Weijing felt that he saw ignorance and malice in the eyes of the waiter who brushed past him.

Then.

just now.

What did he see in his own eyes?
Gu Weijing thought it was ugly. In that instant, he felt a little unfamiliar with it... In that instant, Gu Weijing couldn't help but ask himself in his heart.

"Hey, how did you become like this?"

He just won the award a few days ago.

He began to change so much that he no longer recognized his former self.

Gu Weijing was incredibly harsh when he criticized others. He said Anna was only concerned with herself and believed the world should revolve around her will. He criticized Tang Ning, finding her petty and insignificant, arrogant and disdainful of others, as if she were the best painter in the world. He also criticized her underhanded tactics, saying that photograph was proof of her insecurity and fear.

What about himself?
He's been featured in a few magazines, won one or two awards, but hasn't graduated from university yet, and his art exhibition hasn't even started.

He simply can no longer allow others to refuse him.

"No one can resist Picasso."

In response to Sarah's question, he said with his eyes, "Similarly, no one should refuse Gu Weijing."

Please, what gives him the right to say that?

The former might be a strong sense of history, a confidence derived from the work itself.

What about the latter?

What is the latter? Is it arrogance or prejudice?

Between him and Niles, who was the truly arrogant one? The other politely told him that he felt his understanding of art was not deep enough and he was not ready to study printmaking.

Gu Weijing was astonished to have such thoughts in his mind. He felt it was an unwarranted humiliation and wanted to stomp the other person to death.

He had only been immersed in the "Vanity Fair" for a few days.

He was the one who almost got trampled to death for refusing Brother Hao's "favor." Suddenly, the tables turned, and he became the one who subconsciously raised his foot to step on others.

So ugly.

It's absolutely hideous.

Niles is likely right: why did he study printmaking? Was he passionate enough? Was he interested enough? Did he "need" printmaking enough?

Even if they are wrong, so what?

Can't others be wrong in their evaluation of you? What gives Gu Weijing the right to expect everyone in the world to like him?

Gu Weijing covered his face with his hands and breathed heavily.

He was so ashamed he wanted to disappear.

Today's events may not only be Niles' fault. A few days ago, at that "tasting event," Sarah's comments may have also hurt Gu Weijing.

The other party "rejected" Gu Weijing's art exhibition.

The other party was the director of the magazine "Oil Painting" and a top art critic. Faced with her evaluation, I could only cautiously argue back.

When it was Niles, an ordinary associate professor, who criticized him, he felt angry and wanted to "tear the other person apart."

How could things be like this?