Almighty painter

Chapter 406 The King of Superstars

William adjusted his collar, raised the electronic watch on his wrist, and looked at the time.

There are still 26 minutes until the official start.

Not late.

He pinned the media badge of "Agency Critic" to his collar, turned on the recorder on his body, picked up his backpack, walked through the turbulent flow of people, and walked towards the entrance of the New Art Center.

Media and exhibition guests do not need to queue up to enter, as there are dedicated VIP channels.

William handed his backpack to the policeman wearing a large black cap, raised his hands, and let the metal detector and the explosive-disposal dog sitting aside sniff him for any dangerous items.

Central and Eastern Europe.

The past two years have not been stable. Because the most senior leaders attended, everything at this annual meeting was of the highest level, and the security procedures were also very strict.

It’s just that William felt it subconsciously.

The EOD dog with Polizi (German: Police) printed on its dark vest seemed to be looking a little lethargic for some reason.

The EOD dog is also a Springer Spaniel.

Earlier, she had just seen an extremely elegant and graceful creature of its kind walking past next door.

That fur, that dress, that air of energy, someone who hugged her before and after the trip, and even bared his teeth at her coldly when he looked at her.

It took five years of training to become a strong dog in the dog world. The springer girl who worked hard and succeeded in getting a job in the public family was like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden, or like a female migrant worker who donated money after seeing Ximei. The president smiled contemptuously at her and was immediately shocked.

I feel like a dog has a different fate.

Some dogs are born as cows and horses, and some dogs are born in Rome. Are there any?

It hurts the motivation to work too much.

The dog was unable to catch fish and was urged several times by the trainer.

William didn't care.

He mingled with the reporters waiting in line to pass the customs with great interest, listening to the gossip everywhere. In such a major annual meeting, reporters are always the most well-informed group.

"Hey, do you know who someone saw just now? They said they just entered from the side ten minutes ago."

Someone was discussing quietly.

"Who, Hirst? Isn't he not here yet? The guy from "Art News" has been squatting with his team for three hours. He has been guarding the museum since dawn, and he hasn't arrived yet. .”

"Why are you squatting? You want to be interviewed, but there's no chance. It's impossible for people to do an exclusive interview for you in this kind of situation. When the meeting ends, you can stop in the interview area and ask one or two questions, if you are lucky enough."

Some acquaintances expressed disdain for this unprofessional behavior.

"It's not like I'm trying to do an interview. Just take a photo with your idol as a fan and look familiar. Show your face more, and maybe you can say a few words in the future. Besides, it's okay to be like Hearst. His signature may be sold for two to three hundred yuan."

"Staying up for half a night in the cold wind, just to pay for the hotel room, it's too expensive, it's not worth it. This is not a big exclusive filming a female star's private meeting with her lover. How much bonus will the boss give him for such a hard work? If this continues , From now on, everyone will compete there to see who can survive, and if they can squat, no one will sleep."

Some reporters condemned this vicious competition and involution that exaggerated the difficulty of working in the industry.

"You don't have to pay for the rent. If Hirst is in a good mood, you can lick the 30-second sketch he drew for you, and you don't have to work. People may think they are good at licking. Hirst doesn't There was a precedent in New York, where a taxi driver was given a sketch on a note in his address book, should it be used as fare?" Others sounded yearning.

"I want to peach. If it wasn't for show and hype, I would cut out my tongue. Hirst's sketches can be used to change cars on the side of the road. That time was just a promotional work for Gagosian before the solo exhibition. Which artist would be so sick as to put on a show and expose it to us journalists..."

"Hey, brother, you haven't said yet, who was that who just went in?"

William took his bag back from the police. Hearing that everyone's conversation was getting more and more crooked, he couldn't help but go over and pat the shoulder of the media guy who spoke first.

"No, you should know him."

The media guy patted his head and opened the photos sent in the work group. The photographers in his team had completed the security check and entered the venue. They would share some wonderful photos.

He quickly scrolled through a large number of photos of pretty girls.

Finally, the fingertips stopped on a wide-angle lens view of the front of the venue.

"Look carefully. Do you know that person? The one on the left in the middle of the first row."

"hiss!"

"I go……

"No, is it him? I didn't see him on the guest list."

"Indeed, not really. Look, the seat where he originally sat belonged to the founder of CBX Gallery, Belgium's largest art dealer. Even the sign in front of the seat has not been changed."

"All kinds of monsters have appeared. I heard from the tabloids last year that this guy died in a mountain accident while climbing a snow-capped mountain in Nepal."

"Is the big news about "Oil Painting" about him?"

William frowned slightly and stared at the figure on the far left of the photo on the phone screen.

In the main venue, all the guests were dressed in elite suits and leather shoes, and their hair was fixed in such a way that if a fly landed on it, it would cause splits.

It's hard not to notice the other person.

Because what the other person is paying attention to is like a speck of green among thousands of flowers, or a split fly that suddenly lands on a shiny head.

Messy beard, sloppy gray hair.

He is about 200 meters tall and weighs more than pounds.

not fat.

Very strong, extremely strong.

He looks a bit old, but the strong muscles bulging in his arms still make the dusty windbreaker appear to be tightly stretched against his body.

Even if there is only one vicissitudes of life in the camera lens.

But his expression looked a little nervous, and his eyes had an excessive sense of vigilance.

There’s even an e-cigarette nozzle hanging around his neck.

William is a financial reporter.

I have just been transferred by the editor-in-chief to do follow-up reporting, and my understanding of celebrities in the art field is definitely not as good as that of my colleagues who only do art news in specialized fields.

He quickly refreshed himself on some relevant knowledge and the status of the guests who would attend this annual meeting.

At this time, it is still difficult to recognize the other person's identity at a glance like other people.

But how to say it?

The image of this person on the screen still gave William a very strong sense of familiarity.

On the one hand, explain.

This person may have been very, very famous, and he has seen pictures of the other person on some occasions.

on the other hand.

This guy's image... is really full of the life of a homeless street guy that is often seen on the streets of New York and on park benches at night.

Dirty trench coat, beard, long curly hair.

The homeless artist's standard three-piece set.

If you can fool a few tourists into painting, you can defraud them of a few dollars.

Don't cheat.

Pair it with a low-brimmed baseball cap, Nike sneakers for easy escape, and an M1911 pistol, a reliable and durable weapon inherited from American street fighters. When the night is dark and windy, you can always find an unattended vending machine or The 24-hour fried chicken restaurant transforms into a green forest hero and has a hearty zero-dollar purchase to solve the problem of heat preservation.

The so-called standard slang term White trash is also used.

But?

What kind of homeless white loser can show up uninvited and sit in the front row of an event without any hindrance?

It seemed that no one present, including the organizers, felt that there was anything inappropriate about this scene.

It was as if he should be there naturally.

Even the owner of CBX Gallery, who had occupied his seat, did not show any dissatisfaction. He sat directly next to him and was talking with this dusty homeless man whose exact age was unclear for a while with a smile on his face.

God.

In William's bad knowledge.

This gallerist, who is worth over $500 million, is rumored to have severe mysophobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was once photographed in a news photo of repeatedly wiping his hands in a corner after shaking hands with others.

Fortunately, he didn't wait until his heart felt like a cat was scratching him, and he racked his brains to figure out who this artist whose painting style didn't match anyone else's was.

He heard someone say the answer with awe in his tone.

"That's Hunter Bull, the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Biennale in 2005. Note that it's not a gold medal, but a Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the youngest person in history."         "Oh my God, it's him, I know him. He's a teenager During the era, I once worked in Picasso’s studio, and later switched to pop art. Among the three pop godfathers in the United States, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, he ranks third.”

"At that time, I heard that he suddenly lost interest in his lucrative artistic career and wanted to pursue a higher soul unity between humans and gods. He threw away his soon-to-be-married model girlfriend and his super mansion on Long Island, without looking back. I went back to a hermit monastery in Romania and became a monk..."

"The only reliable report I know of is In Search of a Vampire ."

"The cousin of his ex-girlfriend I interviewed, the inside information is that he is researching the third type of contact with aliens."

William shook his head.

When the name Bull appeared, he had already realized who this guy dressed like a tramp was.

Hunter Bull, nicknamed "Elvis" Bull.

He was born into a wealthy family, and his parents sent him to Picasso's studio as an apprentice when he was young. Originally, this could only be regarded as a bright spot on his resume.

Picasso is known as the founder of modern art.

He has many disciples and students, and there are even more people who have been mentored and influenced by him. Some of them are quite unsatisfied and can only use the name of "Picasso's apprentice" to live up to the ordinary status of a middle-level artist. make a living.

It is said that Boole was not a diligent student in the studio.

Then again.

Picasso was extremely talented and was hailed as Spain's art prodigy when he was less than 15 years old. He was granted admission to the Royal Fernando Academy of Fine Arts where masters gathered to study.

But Comrade Lao Bi has never been a well-behaved, cute and good student since he was a child.

In the 70s.

Picasso in his twilight years may have seen in Boole the days when he and his classmates skipped class to drink coffee at the Four Cats Cafe.

In his later years, he went to that studio very rarely, but it seems that Picasso showed favor to Boole when he was still a child.

Throughout the master's entire life, Picasso has never been the kind of good gentleman who likes to support his younger generations.

But he showed a considerable degree of patience and attention to Bull.

It may be a tabloid fabrication, but it may not be true.

It is rumored.

Picasso once touched Boole's head and said to a bystander - "You know, he will become the Elvis Presley of artists (note), he will be the next person alive to see his works put into the People in the Louvre.”

(Note: rock star, Elvis Presley).

This sentence is like a prophecy from heaven made by the muse in the dark through the mouth of an old art master who is like a candle in the wind.

It entangled this child for half of his life for the next fifty years.

He first engaged in Cubism and abstract art. A few years later, just when everyone thought he would move step by step towards the Surrealist painting style, he switched to Neo-Dadaism. At that time, some scholars called Neo-Dadaism For "degenerate style".

Soon a more widespread name took their place - Pop Art.

Throughout the 20th century, there were two revolutionary painting methods in the West that could be linked to gold.

Cubism.

Pop art.

Racial issues, affirmative action... Needless to say, there are some special "painting trends" in the field of contemporary European and American art.

Painters who excel in these aspects will be more likely to win awards and receive attention.

This is normal. Art has the function of reflecting hot social issues.

But if a person can continuously hit the two biggest artistic trends in the past hundred years, then he is almost destined to become the most eye-catching superstar in the history of art.

The entire last two decades of the 20th century were a period of crazy rise in Hunter Bull's worth.

Thirty years after Picasso made his prediction.

2005 years.

An early representative work of Pop Art, the silk-screen print "Triple Figures of Elvis" based on film photos was auctioned at Sotheby's in New York for a sky-high price of US$8000 million, setting a new record for similar paintings.

In the same year, the unit price of Hunter Bull's personal works exceeded US$1730 million.

Among all living painters in human history, he ranked second. At that time, he was only 1850 million US dollars away from Hirst's record of 120 million US dollars.

But he succeeded in winning the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Biennale, which Hirst had longed for for many years but to no avail. That year, he was only 42 years old.

It happened to be the age when Elvis Presley, the second-largest rock star in terms of record sales in human history, died.

It seems to be some kind of weird reincarnation of fate.

Historically, Elvis Presley suffered from emotional problems for a long time, went crazy and had an unstable mental state. Elvis Presley's manager recalled that he once gave all his friends a then-latest Mercedes sedan and...a loaded and loaded revolver that was threatening in nature for Christmas.

This artist, who was predicted by Picasso as a child that his career would be as shining as Elvis Presley, also had the same psychological problem.

Ok.

Psychological issues don't accurately sum up Hunter Bull's situation.

It is completely normal for artists to have some psychotic lunatics and gibbering bastards.

However, a person as talented and unique as Mr. Bull.

Once in a century.

Those who are crazier than him are not as successful as him, and those who are nearly as successful as him are far less crazy than them.

The great artists all have some quirks. Yayoi Kusama, Edvard Munch, and Van Gogh have even been diagnosed with mental problems and have been admitted to mental hospitals.

But he was beyond the confines of his quirk.

It directly sublimates the matter of "going crazy" to the level of abstraction.

He likes extreme sports. He once imagined jumping from a height of 10,000 meters alone without a parachute, protection measures or coach, and finally landed in a giant buffer net the size of a rugby field supported by supports. He also dressed up as a homeless man and wandered aimlessly on the street corner. A kind-hearted gentleman probably treated him to a hot dog out of humanitarianism, and he casually wrote a huge check in return.

It’s almost certain that this isn’t some marketing trick.

Because there were no cameras or paparazzi reporters reporting this incident, even the enthusiastic gentleman himself thought it was a humorous joke. Fortunately, he threw the check into the shoebox of miscellaneous items in the cupboard instead of throwing it away. .

It wasn’t until three years later when I was browsing interviews in the New York Times that I discovered that the photo of the artist interviewed on the headline looked familiar.

I just ran to the bank and tried to exchange it.

The check was found to be genuine.

Although the 180-day time limit for personal checks has long passed, in accordance with U.S. law, after contacting and obtaining the consent of Bull's attorney, the check worth $100 million was still successfully exchanged.

The summer when the news broke.

People all over the East Coast of the United States are often happy to have nothing to do, and treat homeless people wandering the streets to eat hot dogs, hoping that the other person will be a hidden super rich man.

Buell's madness became part of his enchanting quality, attracting legions of fans and followers around the world.

Sociologists studied him as some kind of social event, and believed that this was the phenomenon that made him popular, and it was a group gibbering in a high-pressure, fast-paced urban life.

He completely fulfilled all the stereotypes and imaginary expectations people have for the role of "artist".

In the media's impression, the high point and end of Buell's career both occurred in the same year of 2005.

He did not suffer the cold reception from the market and the bursting of the bubble like Hearst, nor did he engage in a sex scandal or be eliminated by MeToo, but the sudden stop of Bull's career was of a "physical" nature.

Just when everyone is about to gradually accept the artist's eccentric behavior and become accustomed to it.

He played an unprecedented ruthless life.

The great painter who was standing at the pinnacle of glory... just drove himself crazy.

One day, Hunter Bull, who was preparing for his wedding, drove from his home in Long Island to a Manhattan supermarket to buy fireworks for singles to use while waiting in line.

Before going out, he told the housekeeper that he would be here in about an hour and refused to be accompanied by bodyguards.

then.

He just disappeared.

People found the Ferrari F430 car he drove out that day in the parking lot of Madison Avenue, and found on the windshield a message written by Buell using women's lipstick to his Brazilian girlfriend——

[Jane, I have thought about it for a long time. Marriage scares me, like a free bird caught in a dust net. I want to spend a few months thinking about something, something deeper about our world. 】

(End of this chapter)