Almighty painter

Chapter 216 Hanks' Big Discovery

"This is a contract. If you have any difficulty understanding the legal terms, I have also hired a professional business translator for you."

Hanks took out a printed contract from the outer briefcase compartment of the briefcase.Asked for a black signature pen, added a few numbers at the key points on the spot, and handed it to Mr. Gu Tongxiang.

"Please take a look at it, you can watch it slowly."

"I don't think there is a big problem with a 75% commission on sales of works and an annual creative allowance of US$[-]."

Gu Tongxiang glanced twice.

There is no big objection to the content of these two welfare benefits, and it is only natural for the shop to bully customers.To be honest, this ratio is not too much.

The only thing that makes the old man a little worried is: "Is the 20-year contract period too long?"

The career of an artist is much longer than that of an athlete, and 20 years basically covers Gu Weijing's entire youth.

About half of the golden period of the other party's career is bound to the ship Ma Shi Gallery.

Gu Tongxiang doesn't think there is anything wrong with being able to cooperate with Ma Shi Gallery for 20 years.

But with the old man's experience, he knows that everything has its downside.

If the cooperation is not pleasant.

With such a long contract, if you want to jump ship halfway, you have to pay a liquidated damages that you can't make up even if you sell the current Gu's painting and calligraphy shop.

It doesn't sound good.

As soon as this kind of contract is signed, his grandson Gu Weijing will really become the daughter of a tenant working in the family of the rich landlord Huang Shiren.

Whether she will become a white-haired girl or not depends entirely on the mood of the gallery.

The interpersonal relationships of large galleries are intricate and complicated, and if you offend a relationship that shouldn’t be offended, you will hide it for ten years. I really think that other galleries can’t do it.

"You don't have to worry about it. The group of painters is the most important asset of our Mashi Gallery, and our interests are highly consistent. 20 years seems a long time, because at your grandson's age, we will not push him too eagerly. To the market, during his college years, we may arrange for him to practice in the studios of great painters like Deke Allen, and gradually enter the field of vision of collectors.”

Deck Allen, watercolorist and oil painter, double winner of the 2017 International Watercolor Award and the Barcelona Watercolor Award selected by the AWS Association, and the gold medal winner of the 2019 Antwerp Art Biennale.

The total sales of works in the whole year of last year have exceeded 500 million US dollars, accounting for more than one-tenth of the annual revenue of Ma Shi Gallery.

Although his status is not as good as that of Professor Kazusei Sakai, he is also an international first-line painter and one of the most important high-quality assets of the gallery today.

Hanks wasn't lying.

The exposure resources that large galleries can grasp beat small galleries in all aspects.

From entering the studio of a great painter to holding a solo exhibition, Mashi Gallery can do it, the only premise is that his performance is good enough to be worthy of the gallery.

And if the signing is not good enough or below expectations -- such a guy doesn't have to think about their feelings.

"You can think about it, the current time is 6:53 in the evening..."

Hanks raised his sleeve and looked at his watch, "I'm going to fly to the National Art Gallery of Abu Dhabi soon, where Mashi Gallery will hold a solo exhibition for Deckard Allen next month, I don't want to stay too long in Myanmar A lot of time. So, if you can save time, sign the contract before midnight tonight."

He lifted the briefcase vigorously and put it on the table.

"I'm willing to pay you a signing fee."

This is half true.

Holding a countdown timer and seducing and blackmailing people is not the patent of fat people. Professor Sakai Kazunari can play, and he Hanks can also play.

After the manager returned to the hotel that night, he gradually calmed down.

Gu Weijing's talent is gratifying, but there are too many variables in the art market, and he often only cares about things that can be seen and touched.

In fact, the biggest highlight of Gu Weijing's current works is his age.

People in a small area of ​​Yangon, unlike Ms. Sakai Katsuko, have no connections or resources.

His pen and ink are definitely at the level of ordinary professional painters. Fusion paintings are novel, but they are too similar to Castiglione. If they are too similar, they will lack their own novelty.

Hanks is not sure whether Gu Weijing can maintain the rapid growth of the current technique improvement speed in the future.

This matter can only talk about probability. The saying that under the age of 30 is the golden age for painters to mature rapidly is just a statistics of big data.

Putting it on an individual is by no means a golden rule.

Some painters are more talented when they are young.

It's getting old, and Zhongyong may suffer a lot from big or bad.

As for the innovation of painting methods, I want to draw new ideas on the basis of the original predecessors.To put it simply, it may be just a pat on the head, but to say it is hard to say, it will be normal for ten or twenty years.

Desarro, Monet, and Picasso all explored for more than three to five years before trying to find their own way.

Gu Weijing is a wild young genius discovered by Uncle Sakai accidentally.

A medium-sized gallery does not have the training resources of Ma Shi Gallery, and a gallery larger than Ma Shi Gallery, even if Uncle Sakai recommends him to the other party, he may not be very caring.

Therefore, he, the buyer, is qualified to put forward conditions.

Hanks opened the zipper of the briefcase, and the bundles of green and blue banknotes were nakedly exposed to everyone in the study, with a seductive charm.

"Sign! We can sign now!"

Aunt finally couldn't bear it anymore.

She slapped her palm on the table with a bang, making the lid of the teacup next to her jump.

With such good conditions, my aunt doesn't understand what kind of airs the old man is still putting on there.

At the beginning, she murmured in her heart, suspecting that it was a new way of kidnapping by the North Burmese Fraud Park.

Now seeing a whole briefcase of banknotes in front of her eyes, my aunt finally had no doubts.

All the pies falling from the sky hit the head,
Not signing is not human.

"How about signing every ten years?" Gu Tongxiang was still hesitating, hesitating.

"20."

Hanks was very determined on his face, and there was no room for maneuver in his tone, "There is nothing to talk about, you can think about it first."

"And even if you agree to this condition, before signing the contract, I have an additional request. Your family runs a gallery. Is there a studio where Mr. Gu Weijing usually paints?"

He wanted to examine a few more works by Gu Weijing.

Those recommended by Professor Kazushige Sakai have little risk of fraud.

Hanks still wanted to confirm in advance that the work that impressed him so much was undoubtedly painted by Gu Weijing.

Gu Weijing's works and his grandfather Gu Tongxiang's paintings display a similar level of technique.

It will be a lot of fun if there is something like grandpa giving his grandson a brush to paint again.

Gu Tongxiang had no objection.

"Wait a minute, I'll take you to our studio, where there should be some paintings of my grandson." Gu Tongxiang nodded.

Just walked out of the study door,
My aunt couldn't help nagging and whispering anxiously to the old man's ear: "Dad, what are you thinking? After passing this village, there will be no such shop. Listen, you don't have to do anything for $[-] a year. Spend money to support your grandson for you."

"And not to mention that there are so many signing fees to pay. Gu Lin and Gu Weijing are both graduating this year, and there are plenty of places to spend money to study abroad. Dad, let me tell you, my daughter can't be poor, What if a girl doesn't have enough living expenses and is cheated by a foreign man."

The middle-aged woman continued to chatter aside.

"It's not that you don't need to take money for nothing...you just don't understand. This money is a drop in the bucket for Ma Shi Gallery. They just want to use this money to buy the right to choose for the next 20 years." Gu Tongxiang glanced at it. , Looking at the daughter-in-law who was about to be hooked by the banknotes in the big briefcase, she said helplessly.

"The right to choose, if someone is willing to sign me, I can't wait to sign a 80 year one! Really, Xiao Lin should have learned to paint in the first place, and this industry is so popular now."

My aunt is dissatisfied with her father-in-law's indecision.

"Okay, let's talk about Wei Jing when he comes back. Go downstairs and call Wei Jing to remind him." Gu Tongxiang sent his daughter-in-law away.

The small studio attached to Gu's Book Gallery is a small hall of about forty square meters behind the gallery storefront on the first floor, with thick polyester curtains drawn.

Long-term exposure to strong ultraviolet rays will cause denaturation or cracking of the paint on the surface of the oil painting, so the oil painting cannot be exposed to the sun, and can only be stored indoors in a dark place.

All of Gu Weijing's finished works, except for a few that contributed to the Scholastic Group, are usually placed at the bottom of the wall in the small studio at home to dry in the shade as soon as they are completed.

If you want to keep it for a long time.

After it is completely dry, apply a layer of varnish film to protect the paint on the picture, mount it into a picture frame or roll it into a storage tube, if you think it is unnecessary, scrape it off for secondary use.

"That's it."

Hanks turned over a small easel against the wall in the studio, and the first one he saw was the work he had seen on Professor Sakai's phone a few days ago.

At that time, the photo was only a base map, and now the drawing has been fully completed.

See the real original painting directly on the spot,
Immediately, Hanks felt a completely different feeling in his heart.

"The lines are elegant and the brush and ink are fresh. It's really good." He nodded secretly in his heart, but he put on a normal expression on his face.

He looked at it for a while, and took out a small black square box like a camera lens from his pocket.

3R-MSA600S Portable Microscope for Art Appraisal of Painting and Calligraphy produced by IDITEC.

Hawthorn biscuit-like bauble bauble, which sells for $2000 each on Amazon.

This thing is usually signed by the same artist in other works, and compared with each other to determine the authenticity of the painting.

Support 5x, 30x, 200x zoom.

Hanks clamped the microscope to the phone case, and connected the small tail below it to the charging port of the phone through the type-C interface.

He called up the image from the lens, leaned in front of the canvas, and looked at it bit by bit.

Then, in front of Gu Tongxiang, he asked the translator to put the three paintings of the old man that he picked out in the gallery downstairs, and put them aside, and also looked at them.

"It shouldn't be ghostwriting."

Hanks nodded secretly.

Ordinary appreciation of paintings does not require a microscope.

He was just confirming the pen habits of Gu Weijing and Gu Tongxiang.

Handwriting is identified by handwriting, and painters' brushwork is also identified by brushwork.

The lines of the eyes of the characters are drawn, and the color blocks at the corners are drawn in a clockwise and counterclockwise direction... Some academic opinions now believe that these small details can determine the authorship of a painting better than signatures.

When Da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" was auctioned for [-] million U.S. dollars, when judging whether it was Da Vinci's painting, experts from the British Art Museum adopted a similar method, comparing "The Madonna of Benois" with The handwriting of "Girl Holding a Mink" has been identified as two authentic Leonardo da Vinci handwritings that have been passed down orderly in history.

of course,

Whether this microscopic identification method is convincing enough is still a big debate.

Hanks found that this painting and Gu Tongxiang's works have a strong similarity in the strokes, and it is normal for the two to be grandparents.

Fortunately, there are quite a lot of differences in the small pen habits, and it should not be a painting by one person.

"Let Gu Weijing draw two brush strokes in front of your eyes after returning home. Make a shape or something. Look at his line, shape, and color skills, isn't it?"

Gu Tongxiang watched Hanks busy, and couldn't help saying.

"Don't delay, idle is idle anyway." Hanks said without raising his head.

After appraising the pen habits, he continued to appreciate the detailed brushwork of this painting.

When Hanks works, he is as meticulous as a miller who uses critical eyes to judge whether the donkey's teeth and donkey hooves are healthy and strong in the livestock market.

In the future, his galleon, pension, and money to go skiing in Switzerland to become a model will all depend on the hard work of this little brother.

Hanks inspected very professionally.

The flexibility of the knee joints of Europeans determines that it is difficult for many people to squat for a long time. Hanks is not too dirty, so he just knelt on one knee on the concrete floor in front of the easel, and carefully graded Gu Weijing.

"On the premise of maintaining a stable visual perception, the structure of the picture is not lacking in novelty. The grand atmosphere has the style of a general, not bad. The direction of the sunlight is quite interesting, um... the statue of the Virgin in the shadow, is it intentional? Pretty bold."

"The oriental temperament contained in the line shape is different from the traditional sketch, but it can also be seen that he has a good ability to control the line, which can be greatly praised!"

"The color processing is average, neither good nor bad. The visual focus is flexible, and the excessive color mixing of high and low light is flawed. Overall, it is still solid..."

"Whether it's sketches, oil paintings or oriental art techniques, they are all very good, and there are no obvious shortcomings."

Follow your gaze.

All kinds of information in Hanks' mind naturally came to mind, scoring items in the table in his mind.

"Uh... somewhere between three thousand and four thousand dollars."

Hanks whispered to himself in his heart.

Based on his experience in the industry, he judged that this painting erased all other information, only relying on its own beauty, with a price tag of about 3500 US dollars, and put it in an ordinary European community gallery, even if there is no additional exposure channel, At this price, there should always be fans who buy it.

Three thousand to four thousand dollars is the price in small galleries.

If it is easy to operate through the channel of Ma Shi Gallery, Hanks will not be able to sell less than five figures.

"My grandson's painting is not bad." Gu Tongxiang was proud.

"Of course it's not bad here, otherwise I wouldn't have flown here specially. But it's nothing to be in Ma Shi Gallery. The pen and ink are still young, too young."

Hanks has his own little plan, so he won't follow the words of Mr. Gu.

"He's still a kid."

"Artistic value has nothing to do with age. With his current level, he can't sell for a price at all. There is still a long way to go if Ma Shi Gallery really wants to bring Gu Weijing to the market. Besides, his painting style is completely imitated The court paintings of the Qing Dynasty itself determined that the audience would not...Wait! what's that?"

Halfway through Hanks' words, he suddenly let out a low exclamation, and opened his eyes suddenly.

His original intention was that he didn't want to be too optimistic about Gu Weijing in front of Gu Tongxiang.

But halfway through Hanks' words, he suddenly called out unconsciously.

In order to prevent dust from falling and being rubbed by the corners of people's clothes, all the works that are drying in the studio are placed with their backs facing the wall according to good habits.

While the agent was speaking, he casually opened an easel next to him, only to see a work that was completely beyond his expectations.

That is--

A somber... Impressionist painting?

Treat the history of art since the [-]th century as a movie, and the story about the Impressionist painters is the main line of the movie.

It is known as the beginning and origin of modern art.

Since the Industrial Revolution, various schools of art have emerged one after another, and Impressionism is not the earliest in the absolute sense of time. Before it, there were two predecessors, Romanticism and Pre-Raphaelites.

After it, realism, separatism, aestheticism, and symbolism emerged in an endless stream.

However, compared with Impressionism, these trends are nothing more than gurgling streams in empty mountains and valleys, while Impressionism is truly a turbulent wave sweeping through the history of art.

Throughout the entire history of Western art, in terms of influence, only Picasso's Cubism may be able to break the wrist.Andy Warhol and Yayoi Kusama's pop art may have made more money, but their historical status is still much worse.

Many academic opinions believe that if there is no ideological trend born of Impressionism that integrates objective reality and color perception, by depicting strong and subtle changes in light and shadow, perhaps the art of painting will be completely defeated by the newly born art of photography at that time, and even completely replaced.

Hanks has seen countless impressive Impressionist paintings, but he still can't find any picture of a work as special as his eyes.

Black rain, flowing thunder, rolling colored candles.

Van Gogh also painted night-themed works, whether it is "Cafe" or "Starry Night", they all seem to be "bright" works, but there are no works with such a dark base color in front of him.

The weird thing is,
With such a cold paint, the picture does not look melancholic at all.

The whole painting is completed with impressionistic short strokes, except for the bright candlelight, which condenses the whole picture like an anchor.

Hanks almost knelt down at the sight.

(End of this chapter)