Almighty painter

Chapter 220 Exhibition
"Seven-year contract period, during the contract period, the contracted artist will provide at least 20 works for the gallery, and Ma Shi Gallery must promise no less than 20 US dollars in total sales. For the part below 75 US dollars, 20% will be drawn, and 50 to 65 US dollars, 50% of the commission, adjusted to 50% of the commission for more than [-] US dollars. During the contract period, at least one academic exhibition or art exhibition planned by Mashi Gallery must be participated in every two years, and the total number of times should not be less than four times. If the total sales of the works created in the contract exceed [-] US dollars, an additional special solo exhibition will be held for the contracted artist and a personal album will be published.”

Hanks looked at the ladder-shaped data written by Mrs. Sakai on the paper.

Halfway through, he shook his head like a rattle.

"It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous!"

"The total sales are guaranteed to be no less than 20 US dollars. The sales are determined by the market acceptance and the artist's level. We can't meet this condition. Could it be that he handed us a hundred blank sheets of paper, and we have to promise to sell 20 US dollars?" Go dollars!"

"There is a saying in the industry that bad galleries can sell gold for shit, and excellent galleries can sell shit for gold. Maybe there is an exaggeration in it. However, as long as Ma Shi Gallery is willing to tilt sales resources to small Gu, for example, hold a few more large-scale solo exhibitions. Even if you can sell 20 blank sheets of paper for [-] US dollars, it is actually very easy.”

Mrs. Sakai said lightly.

"Pfft."

"Hold more large-scale solo exhibitions? Ma'am, why don't you ask us to spend 20 knives to buy all his works?"

Hanks was directly amused.

In theory,
The works of emerging artists are the same as the countless new virtual coins that blockchain exchanges will be developed over time.

As long as you are willing to tilt resources, have sufficient media exposure, and be willing to hype.

White paper and air can be easily sold for sky-high prices.

The big deal is nothing more than courageous collectors beating drums to pass flowers together, betting that the bubble will not collapse by themselves.

But it can't be calculated that way.

Publicity and marketing itself is also old and expensive.

For a decent solo exhibition, the cost of the gallery can easily be $10,000+.

$10,000+ is for a very small show.

It really needs to be scaled up, invest a little bit of resources and cooperate with some large museums, spending 200 million US dollars is like playing.

caution,
It is a very budget-conscious expense to use 200 million US dollars to hold a solo exhibition for a major artist that can attract the attention of a certain public and collectors.It is also necessary for the gallery to be like Ma Shi Gallery, which has half a century of human resources and relationship with museums and art galleries, and can hold exhibitions at a cost-friendly price.

Otherwise, the cost will go up.

If you really want to hold that kind of world-renowned exhibition, it should be on the scale that Mrs. Sakai said "sell shit for gold".

Sorry,

Starting with tens of millions of dollars, there is no upper limit.

In 2017, Damien Hirst spent ten years preparing for the highest honor of the Venice Biennale, the Golden Lion Award, and brought his personal entry "Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable" to Palazzo Grassi in Venice. "The Unbelievable Treasure of Wreckage."

It is not a painting, but a group of 189 works of art like a solo exhibition.

For this solo exhibition, the support team behind Hirst not counting the labor costs and venue expenses, the basic cost alone exceeded 5000 million pounds.

Not $5000 million, but £5000 million.

In the end, I haven't won the award yet.

When art is making money, it’s making money every day, but when it’s really burning money, throwing companies listed on the New Third Board into it can’t even make a splash.

compare to,

Mrs. Sakai's request to publish a personal picture album for Gu Weijing is easy to accept.

The artist's related albums or art monographs are published, usually to gain fame in the academic field.

The sales volume of artwork catalogs is not high, but the printing is very expensive. Basically, the gallery must publish it at its own expense, and hundreds of thousands of dollars should be indispensable.

"It is impossible for us to agree to such a condition, and no large gallery of the same level will offer such a condition to an unknown emerging painter."

Hanks sneered.

"I'm sorry, I respect you, ma'am, but this request is really outrageous. You know, he is a newcomer, a newcomer without any accumulation of fame!"

With a particularly emphatic tone, he knocked on the table, almost yelling.

"This condition may be enough to find a famous middle-level and high-level painter from a second-tier gallery. This condition is simply a fantasy."

"Little Gu is just a newcomer who is not well-known now, and he will not be soon. Gu Weijing will participate in this year's Lion City Art Exhibition. The painting you see is the idea of ​​his entry for the exhibition. You also have your own judgment on how the picture will look."

"Singapore Art Exhibition, oh, no wonder..."

hear the word,
Hanks was slightly taken aback.

He recalled the painting "The Orphanage in the Sun" and immediately found that this painting was really suitable for participating in this year's Lion City's "Noisy Human World·Biennial Art Exhibition".

If Gu Weijing can really participate in the Singapore Art Exhibition.If you even win an award, your worth will naturally increase significantly.

And this painting,

Although Hanks thinks that the brush and ink are a bit green, but in Singapore, choosing the right painting method may be more important than the artist's own technique.

It doesn't necessarily mean that there is no possibility of this kid picking up a small award.

"More than that, Mr. Cao Xuan's oldest disciple, Mr. Lin Taolin from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, also admires Gu Weijing very much and wants to accept him as a disciple."

"Last year, Lin Tao was the 43rd painter on the Hurun Artist Rich List, really? Are you sure he's a disciple?"

In the manager's mind, Gu Weijing's ability to pull connections was more than just shocking.

Cao Lao's grandson and Uncle Sakai's possible son-in-law?

After a little calculation in his mind, he couldn't help licking the corners of his mouth.

"Finally, Gu Weijing is co-authoring a paper on Dark Impressionism with my daughter. I have full confidence that this paper will be published in a top AHCI journal like Asian Art."

This is not the time to display the virtue of humility.

How much ability you have, you have to show how much ability you have.

Mrs. Sakai showed Gu Weijing's advantages one by one in front of Hanks.

Not even dissertations.

"He not only has painting potential, but also academic potential. In the past half century, intellectual painters who are able to take the academic route have become more and more popular. These advantages are what you call 'anyone who becomes famous in the middle and high-level Something a painter' can't do at all."

Hanks fell silent.

He realized that before he came, he hadn't done enough background checks, and he might have underestimated the potential of this little painter.

If Gu Weijing really wins an award at the art exhibition, then add this other information.

The price Mrs. Sakai wrote on the contract still seemed very high, but it was already worth considering.

"Any inside information? Does he have a channel for invited artists to participate in this year's Lion City Biennale?"

Hanks thought for a moment.

Now he dare not underestimate Gu Weijing's network channels.

"I don't think it's necessary. Relying on your own strength to compete is the most valuable achievement."

Mrs. Sakai raised her eyebrows, showing disdain for such petty tricks.

This kind of high-sounding rhetoric, Hanks just listened to it casually, he didn't believe it.

"Well... the competition in the Lion City Art Exhibition this year is indeed very fierce, and the off-site channels are more difficult to find."

After thinking about it, he still shook his head.

"Based on the current level of Gu Weijing's painting, if there is no off-site help, I don't think it is easy to say whether he can participate in the competition of the master group in the main exhibition area."

"He still has several months to improve his works, and the probability of being selected into the master group is at least 70.00%."

Mrs. Sakai said.

"The probability of winning is no more than [-]%." Hanks shrugged, "Ma'am, this is a blank check."

"There is a [-]% chance that you will make money, and a [-]% chance that you will not lose money."

Mrs. Sakai put her two calves together lightly, and took the initiative to speak in her hands, "If your gallery is willing to use network resources to help Gu Weijing gain higher exposure during the competition period, I think the chance of winning is far away. It’s far more than [-]%. If not, why don’t we wait until the exhibition and then wait for the price to sell?”

The Biennale is not just a competition between different artists.

A high-end exhibition is also a competition between different galleries for publicity resources.

Many people may have seen in the gossip tabloids that professional public relations teams lobby for the Oscars or the Venice Film Festival.

In fact, the famous Venice Film Festival is one of the subunits of the Venice Biennale.

In a traditional serious painting exhibition, the logic of operation is similar.

The painting art exhibition is relatively purer than the film exhibition.

Naked money transactions rarely happen, but there are far more ways to influence the organizing committee than just financial bribes.

First of all, during the duration of the exhibition, powerful galleries can hire art critics to write articles through the Internet and traditional paper media to create momentum for their represented painters.

Many collectors and art lovers will pay to subscribe to some well-known art newspapers, such as "Art Expo", "Art Review", and "Oil Painting".

These big media media will push column articles to their paying readers every day or every week.

for example,

Even though Gu Weijing’s small book gallery is just a small grocery store like a grass-roots team, he will still subscribe to the members of "Oil Painting" magazine on time, just like a company engaged in graphic design wants to subscribe to Adobe Family Bucket.

Approximate to the necessities of eating.

Gu Tongxiang paid a monthly membership fee of 75 euros, in addition to being able to browse the corresponding information in the buyer's guide section.

The editorial department of "Oil Painting" magazine will also push an email news every Wednesday to Mr. Gu's registered email account.

In this email, senior column editors of the magazine will choose to write some important art industry news and professional art analysis, including corresponding investment suggestions and new evaluations of some noteworthy painters.

The influence of these review articles is enormous.

The "Oil Painting" magazine with a long history is not short of money. As the big brother in this industry, except for the membership fee system, it does not accept soft articles.

Most of these art media are acceptable.

Especially for free electronic media, business cooperation is what makes money.

Gu Weijing would like to participate in the Lion City Art Exhibition, if he has sufficient resources behind him.

It is possible to publish corresponding praise articles on media such as "Singapore Art Observer", which has a large number of local readers in Singapore, to exert external influence on the organizing committee.

This is a price tag of 3.5 Singapore dollars, about [-] U.S. dollars, a horizontal batch of an email newsletter.

If you are willing to spend money, the paper media of mainstream public current affairs news has no special space for 5 to 6 US dollars per issue. If you are willing to spend [-] US dollars, you can buy a large double-page section on the "Daily News Weekly" publicity.

There are more high-end games.

A large gallery like Ma Shi will rent an old castle or blue water courtyard in a high-end hotel every day, and invite famous art critics, collectors, and industry authorities to hold a "reception reception".

The usual hospitality standard is more than 3000 US dollars per person, and it costs 100 US dollars to invite 30 people to play for one night.

If you spend all this money, you may not be able to win prizes.

If you don't spend the money, you may not be rewarded.

But the probability of winning is really not in the same order of magnitude.

The operating rules of the gallery industry have been jokingly called by the public opinion——Money can talk. (Speak with money).

Galleries use money poured out like a sea to promote the popularity of their agent artists, and collectors use the money in their hands to pursue famous painters, and then let gallerists profit.

everything,

As long as you are willing to spend money to "lubricate", there are very few things you can't get.

The Venice Biennale, the most important art exhibition in the history of art, may be able to maintain its dignity in front of money, and it may be replaced by a new art exhibition like the Singapore Biennale.

To put it bluntly,
If there is an artist and his gallery, he is willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to exhibit here.

Regardless of whether the work itself is good or bad, just relying on this investment, it will not be awarded a gold medal.

The organizing committee is all embarrassed.

After Mrs. Sakai learned that Gu Weijing wanted to participate in the Singapore Art Exhibition, she focused on the publicity channel of Ma Shi Gallery.

Anyway, for an international gallery, important branches on all continents have special public relations costs every year, which are astronomical.

Leading companies such as Gagosian, Leeson, and PACE all have budgets in the tens of millions of euros.

These budgets are not wasted, they can be spent on other painters, why not give Xiao Gu a small prize or something?
One fish eats more,
Mrs. Sakai thinks she is a planner!
When Mrs. Sakai and Hanks were discussing the details of the contract, Gu Weijing didn't speak.

He knew that Miss Shengzi's mother was much more knowledgeable than himself.

Other people's words are more effective than your own words.

Gu Weijing was quietly reading the copy of the contract that Hanks had just given, and he was concentrating on studying the pages of [Artist Authorization and Obligations].

When a middle- and lower-level painter signs a contract, the first contract usually won't restrict him too much.

Painters at this level need to do everything possible to solve the problem of survival.

In fact, after signing with a gallery in the industry, there are still many small painters who secretly sell paintings to earn extra money in various circles on the Internet.

This kind of small money, the gallery also belongs to the category of turning a blind eye and closing one eye.

But Gu Weijing didn't want to play with this kind of fire.

(End of this chapter)