Almighty painter

Chapter 281
The entrance of Gu's Book Gallery.

The half-bald old man had a bucket at his feet and was washing the car of an old Lexus LS with a big sponge.

"Hey, look at the paint and the styling, how powerful it is..."

The old man was washing the car and humming to himself.

Car washing, like playing chess, is one of the few old comrade Gu Tongxiang's hobbies that he has retained from his youth to this day.

Other old men like to dance in the square when they are happy. Gu Tongxiang likes to stand on the street with a bucket and wash the car.

In addition to saving a little money on car washing fees, car washing is more of a spiritual pleasure.

The sense of vanity gained from maintaining his car in front of old neighbors is no different from that of young people who drive small sports cars and whistle to girls on the street.

Thirty years ago, someone who could afford to drive a commercial vehicle with a 30-liter V4.0 large-displacement engine on the streets of Yangon was as prestigious as driving a Porsche or Maserati.

The price of the first-generation Lexus LS was not cheaper than these two.

It was really a glorious period of bright clothes and angry horses.

"For your sake, let's wash the car together. After washing, let's go out for a drive today, shall we?" Gu Tongxiang stopped his grandson who was walking by the door and patted the roof of his car twice with his fingers.

Gu Weijing had just returned home from outside with a thick leather document bag under his arm.

He was about to enter the yard when he heard his grandfather's voice. He turned his head and found that his grandfather was taking care of his classic car on the street.

I have the impression that grandpa hasn’t washed the car for a while.

It seems that I am in a particularly good mood today.

"A happy event?"

Gu Weijing asked curiously.

"Your grandfather and I..."

Mr. Gu Tongxiang hesitated for a moment, looked around and saw that there was no one on the street, so he lowered his voice and said in a low voice: "Guess how much I sold a painting?"

The old man quietly stretched out his palm and drew a number.
"50 kyats?" Gu Weijing thought for a while.

"Who are you looking down on? I used to sell a painting for 50 kyats. Now that I have signed a contract with Mas Gallery, I can sell it for another 50 kyats. Do you look down on your grandfather or do you look down on Mas Gallery?"

Old Man Gu pretended to be unhappy.

"The painting you hung in the Ma Shi Gallery was sold?" After Gu Weijing found out about the signing, Hanks took one of his grandfather's peony paintings and hung it on the gallery's homepage.

"Of course, it sold for a full 5000."

"EUR?"

“The big European galleries don’t accept kyats, right?”

Old Man Gu raised his chin triumphantly, his face glowing red, and the few remaining hairs on his forehead almost stood up like tentacles of a cricket with joy.

"The "Peony Picture" sketch for 5000 euros is a child's play."

"Someone has spent so much money, and it's really not the gallery's fault?"

Gu Weijing was indeed a little shocked.

He has seen the "Peony Picture", a traditional Chinese painting that only depicts a single flower. No matter how graceful the flower is, how big can it be?

The whole painting is probably about 1.3 to 1.4 square feet.

5000 euros for 1.4 square feet...

Even 3500 euros per square foot is fine.

This price is still not comparable to Qi Baishi and Zhang Daqian.

But some of Mr. Qi's less famous disciples and descendants may not be able to sell them at this price.

It is true that foreign buyers like the style of fusion paintings, and the price is indeed much higher than expected.

"As you say, he is a famous big buyer in Europe. He was probably conquered by your grandfather's superb and capable pen."

Old Man Gu threw the sponge into the bucket next to the wheel.

He wiped his hands with a huge smile on his face.

At the previous Yangon City Biennale, he sold a sketch for US$500, which was regarded by the old man as one of the most proud things in his life.

Now a sketch painting worth [-] euros makes Gu Tongxiang even more beautiful.

"Heh, let me tell you, if we weren't trapped in a three-quarter acre of land in Yangon and had no good publicity channels, your grandpa and I would definitely have achieved more than just opening a small gallery."

The old man was extremely proud.

Even Hanks from Mashi Gallery was shocked by the turnover of this online auction.

In particular, he was really prepared to raise the price.

And even if he was entrusted, Hanks only arranged a transaction price of about 1800 euros.

After all, it is the first shot of a newly signed painter.

If no one is interested, or if it is sold for a transaction price of one or two hundred euros, the Ma Shi Gallery will look a bit ugly.

As usual.

Hanks arranged for several trustees to participate in a few bids in the middle of the online auction to heighten the atmosphere.

Then within one minute of the end of the auction, if the price is still too low, a bid of 1 euros will be made to buy the painting, creating a good start.

With the reference of a transaction of 1800 euros,

In the future, whether it is promotion or pricing of Gu Tongxiang's other works, we can all move up and down around this price.

Of course, the entrustment that raises the price usually only arranges this one time to set a rough benchmark for a painter's worth.

Whether the work can be sold in the future depends on the artist's true ability.

Otherwise, there would not be those miscellaneous painters with annual sales of 0 cents in the Ma Shi Gallery.

They have prices, but no one buys them, and galleries are unwilling to devote resources to promotion.

As a result, a buyer suddenly appeared and made a direct offer of 5000 euros.

How to describe it?
This price is so fake that it doesn’t look like a promise.

Especially when Hanks checked the personal information of the bidding account, the last trace of concern that Gu Tongxiang spent money to find the gunman to buy it was completely dissipated.

The online auction system of Ma Shi Gallery is jointly developed with Christie's online auction system, and customers from both parties can share it.

The account of this big buyer shows that she is a VVVIP level customer.

The customer level of large auction houses is generally directly linked to the transaction volume. High-authority customers have one-on-one services from dedicated account managers at the auction house, and can pay less deposits to participate in bidding.

If you meet some customers who are in urgent need of money, are not willing to wait, or do not want to bid for other personal reasons, but they have precious collections in their hands.

Chister and Sotheby's can also contact these VIP customers first to ask if they are interested in purchasing.

As long as you have the ability to buy some very rare collections with cash, you can make a lot of money by selling them after a while.

To reach the buyer's account credit level, he needs to have accumulated a shopping amount of at least 3000 million euros in Christie's auction houses.

The people behind accounts of this level are often either Middle Eastern princes or Silicon Valley tycoons.

When you participate in the bidding of paintings by Monet and Cézanne, you can bid based on your reputation alone, and you don’t need to pay a penny deposit in advance.It is impossible for such a VIP to be hired as a gunman.

A bid of 5000 euros or 50000 euros does not make much difference to them. The fuel cost of a yacht party going out to sea is more than this amount.

"Gu Tongxiang", the newly signed agent painter, can be favored by such a top collector.More than a check of 5000 euros, it can prove the value of this painter.

Just like the Shanghai karaoke dancer who was favored by the big warlords during the Republic of China.

It doesn't matter how much the night is.

Originally, Gu Tongxiang was signed mainly because he was Gu Weijing's grandfather.

After this online auction, Hanks' importance to Old Man Gu had to be quietly raised a notch higher.

Gu Tongxiang enjoyed his grandson's ignorant and surprised look very much.

this time.

It is always the progress of his grandson Gu Weijing that shocks me as a grandfather.

This time, the old man finally gained a lot of authority.

It's not like Gu Tongxiang has never sold works worth thousands of dollars before, but those were large paintings that he polished with all his hard work. They had to hang in the store for ten days and a half before he might meet a diplomat who was about to return to his country or a wealthy person. The jade merchant is willing to take the blame.

This is the first painting sold in Ma Shi Gallery, and it can be sold for 5000 euros.

The difficulty of fusion painting is more about the know-how of painting techniques.

A small painting like "Peony" can be completed in one or two cups of tea. Calculating this efficiency, you might be a millionaire after one year of painting.

Of course, the income of a painter cannot be calculated in this way.

Moreover, the majority of Mr. Gu's contract was taken away by Ma Shi Gallery, but compared with before, his career has reached a new level.

As usual,
Gu Tongxiang's character is not willing to share this kind of thing with the younger generation.

Wealth makes people lazy.

When the grandchildren know that he, as a grandfather, can now make a lot of money and there is no financial pressure on the family, they may become dandy like many of his classmates at Dulwich College.

But well...

Not to mention that the painting method of this fusion painting was guided by Gu Weijing. In his heart, Gu Tongxiang now regards his grandson more as a real adult.

He believed that Gu Weijing would not be fooled by this small amount of money, and his future achievements would be much greater than his own.

Five thousand euros is nothing compared to the contract prepared by Mas Gallery for him.

"Find a place with few people for you to practice your skills. You will be able to get your driver's license soon. Boys always have to learn to drive." The old man suggested.

According to Yangon's local regulations, learning to drive does not require attending a specific driving school.

Gu Tongxiang can teach his grandson to drive by himself, as long as he attends a two-day road safety training course authorized by the local transportation bureau after he reaches his age, and then applies for a road test.

After passing, you can directly obtain a driver's license.

"Tomorrow night, I have some arrangements for today." Gu Weijing pinched the large brown paper envelope in his arms and calculated the time.

"you deside."

Gu Tongxiang took out the sponge from the bucket again and started to wipe the windshield of the car: "For the record, don't think how powerful you are now. There are still many things that you need to learn from your elders. Older people are still smarter. ...Your grandfather and I were really prosperous back then!"

If we can say that selling cheap second-hand artworks during the turbulent times in his youth was the first major turning point in Gu Tongxiang's life, which allowed him to escape poverty and barely become a member of the local middle and upper class.

So this signing with Ma Shi Gallery is the second turning point in the old man's life, and his career has reached an unprecedented new peak.

After selling works worth several thousand euros per square foot, my whole mood changed completely.

Career is a man's aphrodisiac.

When the old men in the neighborhood are getting older, they are raising cats and dogs and flirting with the square dancing aunts.

Gu Tongxiang changed out of his gray vest with holes and loose shorts, and now he dressed himself in a Tang suit with embroidered basket bottoms and smart black cloth shoes.

He was lucky enough to meet Mr. Cao Xuan during the Spring Festival. His temperament and appearance as a great artist left a deep impression on Mr. Gu. He was so stylish!
As Mr. Cao's little fanboy.

Gu Tongxiang also secretly cosplayed.

Now he is a contracted painter with an international gallery. Even if he doesn’t take the aesthetic route, he can’t be too humble.Compared with Cao Xuan's age, Gu Tongxiang feels that he can still work hard.

Once a person's mind is revived, the whole person becomes younger.

After a long absence, he took out the hair oil that was almost dry and caked, and began to take care of his bald head again. Recently, he even thought about hair transplant every day.

I don’t know if all the hair follicles on the back of my head have shrunk and died, and whether I can save them.

Lying in bed at night, occasionally thinking about his changes, even Gu Tongxiang found it incredible.

Half a year ago, he was still the old man who thought he could just close his eyes and die after sending his grandson to college. Half a year later, he was actually thinking about getting a hair transplant!
The saying that a dead tree blooms in spring, and a thousand dollars can't buy a beautiful girl after old age, is probably how he describes his current state of mind.

shuh...

A large sponge soaked in water slid across the body of the car.

Gu Tongxiang looked at his face reflected in the smooth car paint, and seemed to see his face that was more than 20 years younger emerging from the black car body.

Glorious.

He really seemed to be back in his prime.My steps are much lighter, and I want to kick the cans I pass by on the street.Every time I pass by a neighbor's dead cat, I want to kick it...

Meow?
Old Man Wu's cat Mi Mi followed Gu Weijing who had just returned home, looked at Gu Tongxiang, and licked his feet.

Old Man Gu felt a phantom pain in his cheek and quietly turned his head away.

Forget it.

What do I have to argue with the beast?If your grandson likes it, just let it go.

"In the future, thousands of songs will float on my road in the distance, and in the future, thousands of evening stars will shine brighter than the moon tonight..."

Chen Shuhua’s old songs rang from the mobile phone in his pocket.

Gu Tongxiang put the sponge on the hood of the car, took out his cell phone, and found that the call was from Hanks.

"Hello, Mr. Mas? Are you coming over today?"

Since Mr. Gu also signed the contract with Ma Shi Gallery, Hanks's visits to Gu's calligraphy and painting shop have become less frequent.

Now Hanks doesn't need to come over every day to bring tea and water, and just wait on Gu Tongxiang to draw pictures and say nice things to build a closer relationship.

Now he is also Gu Tongxiang's official agent.

There is a closer community of interest between the agent and the represented painter than ordinary flattery.

"No, it's not. Mr. Gu, do you remember the big collector who bought your "Peony Painting" before?" Hanks' tone was a little nervous.

"Is there anything wrong with this deal?"

Hearing the manager's urgent voice on the phone, Gu Tongxiang also became nervous.

He didn't want the first painting he sold at Mas Gallery to cause any trouble.

"No problem, it's a great thing. I heard that the collector admired your works very much, so she contacted Ma Shi III today, hoping to add your contact information."

Hanks' tone became serious, and he took a deep breath: "Mr. Gu, this is our opportunity, you must seize it."

(End of this chapter)