Riding the wind of rebirth

When it comes to miracles in the contemporary painting world, Fan Zeng is one of them.

His rise to fame is closely related to the island nation. It can even be said that the market path of contemporary Chinese painters originally started from the hype about Fan Zeng by the island nation.

Fan Zeng transferred to the Art History Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1957, to the Chinese Painting Department half a year later, and to Jiang Zhaohe's studio sixty years later. After graduating in 1962, he worked at the Museum of Chinese History. He followed Shen Congwen in compiling and drawing materials on costumes from past dynasties in China, and copied many outstanding paintings.

After that, he began his creative career, which was characterized by painting historical figures. He also experienced several ups and downs in the process. His paintings also won many domestic awards and were collected by Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Great Hall of the People.

In 1979, Fan Zeng made his first visit to the island country and was well received. He was praised by the island country as "one of the top ten painters in modern China".

In 1981, the 43-year-old Fan Zeng went to Japan to hold a personal exhibition in Tokyo at the invitation of Nippon Co., Ltd. In 1983, at the invitation of Seibu Department Store in the island country, I held another solo exhibition in Tokyo.

In 1984, the island nation of Okayama established the permanent "Fanzang Art Museum".

In 1986, he won the Japan-China Art Exchange Special Contribution Gold Award. His works such as "Songs and Roaring Pictures of Spiritual Movement" are collected in the Okayama Fanzen Art Museum, "Pictures of the Eight Immortals" are collected in the National Art Museum of China, and "Ode to the Sound of Autumn" are collected in the Birmingham Museum in the United States.

In 1987, in order to donate money to build the Oriental Art Building of Nankai University, Fan Zeng went to Japan again to hold art exhibitions in Dagu and Okayama, Tokyo. The exhibition was a great success.

After that, Fan Zeng started on the road to stardom, becoming famous in the island countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and started the cycle of creation, exhibition arrangement and publication of collections of works.

From 1979 to now, almost every other year, there have been important art exhibitions of his in island countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In addition to paintings, calligraphy has also become very popular. In the past two years, he has even started a European tour.

The prices of his works have also skyrocketed, subverting the traditional domestic tradition that "the paintings become valuable only after the painter has left the company", and embarked on a path similar to that of Zhang Daqian and Zao Wou-Ki.

Today, his fine paintings are approaching auction prices of tens of millions of yuan.

Of course, the paintings at this price are limited to those in the album "One Hundred Paintings by Fan Zeng" published by Fan Zeng himself.

What's even more amazing is that in 1987, when the Oriental Art Building of Nankai University was being planned to be built, the prices of Fan Zeng's paintings were not particularly high. He painted two hundred works, but only raised three million yuan.

Many of these works have flowed into places such as Gongmei. In the past few years, when Zhou Zhi used Grandma Yuan to acquire works by contemporary painters by shoveling land at the Beijing Art Academy and Rongbaozhai, she received several works for less than 30,000 yuan. width.

Since the year before last, the works of several modern and contemporary Chinese painters have begun to rise, including Qi Baishi and Fan Zeng.

This time also coincides with the time when art auction houses such as Hanhai and Christie's began to expand their business in the country, which is a bit interesting.

In any case, exchanging the works of modern and contemporary painters for the scrolls of ancient painters may not be a wise behavior in the eyes of others when several modern and contemporary painters are popular.

But Zhou Zhi has no reluctance to give up. If possible, he would even exchange his collection of Wu Guanzhong's "Lion Grove" and Li Keran's "Ten Thousand Rivers and Thousands of Mountains" for exchange.

"There must be three or four." Zhou Zhi did not expect that Fan Zeng's paintings would be so hyped in the island country. Even people with strict tastes like Anzhai Eiichi would pay attention to them: "Except for one piece of Zhong Kui's "The Power of the Ghost", the rest The following are huge works with many figures, namely "Nine Elders", "Seven Sages in the Bamboo Grove", and "Song of the Eight Immortals in Drinking"." "These are all works included in Mr. Fan's "One Hundred Paintings" Ah!" Anzhai Yingyi said excitedly.

"Yes, there is a lot of room for appreciation." Zhou Zhi said: "Hanhai Auction House has analyzed the market price of Mr. Fan's paintings and believes that in two years, except for "The Power of God Walking on Ghosts", which is smaller in size, the other three paintings will exceed 10 million. It’s not a big problem.”

"Well... that's true." Eiichi Anzhai also calmed down: "But it certainly can't be exchanged at this price now. Even with the bonus of Mr. Fan's self-selected album and the expectation of future appreciation, it can reach 8 million It’s the highest.”

"Eight million is fine," Zhou Zhi said: "Add the four million from "The Power of the Gods to Stomp the Ghost", this is 28 million, and there is still a shortfall of 22 million."

"It's a bit difficult for Zhou Sang." I don't know why, seeing Zhou Zhi piecing together things like this, Anzhai Yingyi seemed to think of himself decades ago: "If there is another fine porcelain from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it will be almost the same."

Zhou Zhi shook his head resolutely: "Does the Fujiwara family have any special hobbies or categories of collecting? I mean those from the Song... Yuan... Ming dynasties."

This time it was Eiichi Anzhai's turn to shake his head resolutely: "The Fujiwara family's collection taste is not bad. Apart from your previous unique works of art, otherwise... at least I have to collect the Yuan Dynasty blue and white dragon peony curly grass pattern. Amphora-like level.”

Zhou Zhi pondered for a while and said, "Mr. An Zhai, I would like to ask, do you trust my character?"

"Why did Zhou Sang say such a thing?" An Zhaiying said with a smile: "Your character can be known from the appraisal meeting before the last Hanhai auction. Of course I believe it."

"Mr. Anzhai, 22 million yuan, just over 3 million US dollars, it's not much." Zhou Zhi said: "But I really can't come up with it for a while. I wonder if I can ask Mr. Fujita to come forward." Will my family give me a two-month loan? After two months, I will definitely collect the final payment."

"Don't you know a lot of famous people?" An Zhai said with a smile: "For example, that Lin girl from Hanhai, her father-in-law and brother-in-law, it's easy to raise three million US dollars, right?"

"Well, that's true." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "In fact, you can also ask Mr. Wang and Mr. Qi for help and ask the country to take action."

"But even if this complicates things, there will still be times when you need to beg them in the future. If you can overcome it now, it's best to overcome it yourself." Zhou Zhi said sincerely: "Besides, sir, in the island nation's collection world Isn’t your face far better than those old men I know?”

"Hehehehe... This little kid is setting me up." An Zhaiying said with a smile: "Well, you don't want 22 million yuan. You can find a way to make up 25 million yuan. I Then, I pledged the Yuan Dynasty blue and white amphora to the Fujiwara family."

"Two generations of Jurentang porcelain and Mr. Fan's paintings will be paid in advance as the down payment. I will ask the Fujiwara family to give you the six-hand scroll."

"Twenty-five million yuan is the final payment, which will be paid in two months. How about redeeming my blue and white jar?"

In fact, given Eiichi Anzhai's status in the island country's collecting community, a credit guarantee of three million US dollars can only be a matter of one sentence at most. The reason why it is so complicated and a piece of Yuan blue and white is mortgaged to the Fujiwara family to endorse Zhou Zhi is actually mainly Or the greater purpose is to put pressure on Zhou Zhi.

Including the additional three million, it was also a lesson Anzhai taught Zhou Zhizhang, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the world. (End of chapter)