Almighty painter

Chapter 595 Fusion
Old Yang has the rustic air of a country dog.

But when it comes to casually browsing industry news, he also has the extremely keen sense of smell of a local dog when it comes to meat buns.

Lao Yang clicked on the link and was directly redirected to the original news on the homepage of Berlin Fashion Weekly.

"In the past twenty years, Asian art has become the engine driving the booming art market. When it comes to Asian art exhibitions and Asian curators, we have to mention Fumio Nanjo and his Singapore Biennale. In an interview, artist Cui Xuanyou said that the Singapore Biennale is both national and international. It has an international perspective and can start from Asia..."

“…The exhibition is suspended in the art world, building a bridge between Asia and the West. Fumio Nanjo proposed the famous public design principle in previous Biennales, namely “designing beautifully, focusing on the context of history and culture”. Developing a diverse and integrated cultural perspective has always been one of the important cultural missions of the Singapore Biennale…”

"…In the 00s, the cost of the first Singapore Biennale was close to million. Although there was not much to be exploited in terms of history and geography, there was the entire Southeast Asian background and the four major ethnic cultures and religions, as well as international colors. This provided the Lion City with a strong cultural depth for development. "Diversity" is…"

Soon, Lao Yang finished browsing the entire news page.

The report itself is not particularly novel.

It is just a review of the previous Singapore Art Exhibitions and Fumio Nanjo’s diverse curatorial perspectives, and a discussion of the general trend of artistic integration that it demonstrates. It is just the kind of ordinary academic report that interviews artists in the media.

Usually, there will be more articles like this before the opening of a major art exhibition.

For the same news interview, if efficiency is a little higher, the industry can produce thousands of articles every week.

Lao Yang read it once, and then... he read it again carefully.

"Interesting. Interesting."

He squinted at the screen of his mobile phone, read the article horizontally and vertically, looked carefully between the lines, and muttered to himself.

It was like a local dog that suddenly walked by the roadside, smelled a bunch of rotten meat buns, turned back, and walked around in circles, baring its teeth.

Coincidence?
Shit.

Lao Yang not only has a keen sense of art, but also has a good memory.

It is very good.

It is so good that even Mr. Cao, who has met countless great people in his life, has to look up to him.

After all, he was a genius who, in order to show off when courting girls, spent two days and one night to memorize almost the entire works of Keats in English when he was a student.

Mr. Cao commented that in terms of memory alone, Wang Can from the Three Kingdoms period, who was known by the ancients as being able to "recite and remember something after seeing it once", was just like this.

Old Yang clearly remembered that he had seen another report at the same time yesterday, which was about Cui Xuanyou’s wife Leonie giving a lecture on diversified art aesthetics at the University of Berlin.

If I'm not mistaken.

several days ago.

To be precise, last Thursday, Lao Yang came across a spotlight report on their son Cui Xiaoming, a rising art star.

Even if they are all German natives, the density is a bit too high.

One time can be said to be a coincidence.

The two times can be said to be coincidence.

Three times...

The reason why Lao Yang has been able to get to where he is today is due to his keen observation of various artistic trends.

Yang Dekang likes to call it "killer instinct". He feels like he is a cool and handsome cowboy in western movies. With just a wave of his hand, he can see through everyone's little thoughts behind their greasy smiles.

"Hey, I want to see what you are selling here, old man."

Old Yang touched his chin.

He wanted to tear open the skin to see what fillings were inside this suspicious bun.

He had wanted to make some calls.

After thinking for a moment, Lao Yang decided not to go through so much trouble.

"Cui Xuanyou", "Leoni", "Cui Xiaoming", "Singapore Biennale", "Diverse Art", Lao Yang entered these keywords on the search engine page of his mobile phone.

After hesitating for a moment, he added the word "fusion painting".

He pressed the Enter key.

brush.

When the page is refreshed, a large number of related entries appear on the browser homepage.

Unsurprisingly.

When you see the first cockroach in the house, it means that there are dozens or hundreds of cockroaches moving under the floor to lay eggs.

Old Yang accidentally saw the related news three times in a row.

When you start searching for relevant news deliberately.

Just found out.

There are dozens of similar interview reports from different newspapers and media, most of which were newly written in the past month or so.

Well, no need to have any more doubts.

If this wasn't the result of Cui Xuanyou and Leonie mobilizing their own personal connections and intentionally promoting it, Old Yang would have eaten his cell phone dipped in the bird droppings outside the window on the spot!
"Cui Xiaoming, will he be the most anticipated rising star in the art world in the next thirty years, the next Zao Wou-Ki?"

"This young painter chose this place for his first exhibition."

"I heard that every time Larry Gagosian pays attention to a painter, his net worth can instantly increase by a hundred times? Well, taking a look at him might be a good investment choice."

"..."

Lao Yang casually scanned the news, and after a few seconds, he clicked on the page with the first ranked entry.

That is the official Twitter account of the Singapore Biennale.

As the opening date of the exhibition approaches, its official social account has been posting related updates, interviews with curators, and interacting with fans more frequently.

Just like this one.

The key words in the tweets tagged with # are [Cui Xiaoming/Thomas Gray] and [young blood].

"Over the past 57 years, the Singapore Biennale has been committed to exploring new blood in the field of art. A total of 40 young artists under the age of 28 have participated in the Singapore Art Exhibition. Introducing visual artist "Cui Xiaoming" (27 years old) and new media artist "Thomas Gray ( years old)", they are the two youngest invited artists in this year's Singapore Art Exhibition so far."

Old Yang frowned and clicked on the nine-square grid in the picture below.

Cui Xiaoming, wearing an Oxford shirt, dark jeans, walnut-colored Oxford shoes, a baseball jacket, and keyhole sunglasses, stood in front of the camera with his arms crossed, looking at the lens.

He has a very "slender and melancholy" artist vibe, and his temperament is a bit like Tony Leung Chiu Wai.

This outfit is quite stylish.

"Mark it."

Lao Yang decided to go back and clean up to see if he could get dressed and come out.

Sometimes in a bar, a melancholy uncle can attract more girls' attention than a cool and domineering guy in a jacket and jeans.

But this is not the point. Old Yang frowned, enlarged the photo, and looked at the large easel in the background.

This is a large canvas, about 48 inches long and 72 inches high, which is about the same height as a tall adult.

It is more than twice as big as Gu Weijing's "Good Luck Orphanage in the Sun".

It can be seen that the other party has great ambitions.

Large oil paintings take a long time to paint, require more energy, and the chances of winning are correspondingly greater.

Works of this standard require special registration when participating in certain art exhibitions.

but.

Since Cui Xiaoming is a guest painter, guest painters will have the best booth and the requirements for the size of the works will be more relaxed.

48 inches by 72 inches is not out of the ordinary.

As long as you are willing, the organizing committee welcomes you to use a ladder to paint a huge oil painting of two meters by three meters.

The key is the content of the painting.

Tilted triangle composition.

It is a bit like a Buddhist religious painting, but it is full of exotic atmosphere and has a bit of Zen spirit of "TV Buddha", one of the most famous modern artworks in the history of Asian art.

The Buddha on TV is not the “electronic Buddha” mentioned by netizens who beats an electronic wooden fish, accumulates quantum merits, and meets the cyber mecha Tathagata.

Instead, it was created by the world-class artist Nam-hae Paik, a leader in the Korean art world, as a representative work of art in the history of modern art, "TV Buddha".

In that work, the artist placed a camera in front of a Buddha statue and broadcast the image in real time to a TV opposite the statue. This formed a closed loop, where the Buddha constantly faced his own projection image, trapped in an eternal state, unable to jump out of his physical body.

However, in this oil painting, Cui Xiaoming provides another way to open it.

The Buddha statue sits at the apex of the oblique triangle composition, which is also the junction of light and dark in the picture. The strong changes in light make the Buddha's face become uncertain in light and dark.

Surrounding the Buddha are not the common Four Heavenly Kings or the guardian Arhats and Vajras.

Instead, they are two other religious statues of different heights.

In the light on the right side stands the statue of Ares, the god of war in Greek mythology and one of the twelve main gods of Olympus.

And in the shadow on the left hand side, stands Miss Tyche, the goddess of good luck and money in Western mythology.

They form two sculptures of guardians, one on the left and one on the right.

The projections of the three sculptures under the light are completely woven together.

This oil painting looks like an unfinished work, with a lot of glazing and highlighting left to do.

But the overall meaning of the picture has come out.

"From the perspective of the work alone, the concept and the combination of the painting are good. There is a good idea, and this is aiming for a big prize."

Old Yang twitched his eyebrows twice.

As a graduate of CAFA, although his painting skills are just so-so, Lao Yang does not lack in artistic aesthetic ability, at least not in knowledge.

This painting is obviously intended to catch the trend and win awards.

But he had to say, it was a really good idea.

It not only touches on "money" and "confrontation", which are themes that can never be avoided in modern art.

And the shape of this painting is not a fantasy.

Ordinary people may not understand it, but the judges and experts must understand it, and Lao Yang also understands it.

This kind of sculpture art, which combines Eastern religion and Western mythology and features the god of war and Buddha standing under the same roof, has a history of thousands of years in the history of art.

A shoulder-length coat, a high nose bridge, a full forehead, a calm expression, and naturally curly hair... From the appearance of the Buddha statue in the middle, we can see that this is the most typical feature of Gandhara Buddhist art.

Gandhara is an ancient kingdom in the South Asian subcontinent that existed in the sixth century BC. Its core area included present-day northeastern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan.

The Wakhan Corridor, where it is located, connects China and directly leads to Rome. It is an important hub of the ancient Silk Road, running through the east and the west.

Alexander the Great once rode his horse here, and Genghis Khan's cavalry also galloped like the wind here, holding the imperial edict. Merchants from the East, with long camel caravans stretching as far as the eye could see, headed for the Western Regions from here, and gold coins from Rome and Byzantium also jumped between the fingers of foreign merchants in the prosperous wine shops of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty.

The intersection of geography is often also the intersection of religions.

The bard told the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece in Persian in the inn here. Master Xuanzang also stopped here on his way to Rajgir, Magadha in Central India, and sat cross-legged under the famous Bamiyan Buddha to preach to others.

Even in the book "Journey to the West by Changchun Zhenren", Taoist Master Qiu Chuji of the Quanzhen Sect walked into the Golden Tent of the Mongolian Khan step by step here, wearing Taoist shoes.

Therefore, some religious combinations of a "fusion" nature that cannot be seen elsewhere will be born here.

The Gandhara Buddha statues have very strong "Greco-Roman" sculpture features, and the facial structure has obvious European Aryan characteristics.

As early as the Kushan Dynasty, Buddhism spread from India and South Asia to Central Asia.

Monks often accompanied caravans on the Silk Road and taught the Dharma to merchants during the long and lonely journey.

In ancient times, long-distance merchants were a very dangerous profession with a high mortality rate.

When they are lost in the desert, if they are lucky enough to encounter an oasis with clear springs, at that moment, they will gain a wonderful religious experience and convert to Buddhism.

When every merchant sets out on a journey, he hopes that he can return with a full load of gold coins, and that his accompanying guards can be brave enough to help them repel bandits and powerful enemies.

therefore.

To this day, scholars can still see sculptures combining "Buddha, God of War and Goddess of Luck" among the vast mountains of Afghanistan.

The most wonderful thing about Cui Xiaoming's painting is that it not only implies a reflection on modern art.

Simultaneously.

It is also a double entendre symbol.

Two thousand years ago, the Wakhan Corridor in Central Asia was a trade hub between the East and the West. It was located at the intersection of cultures, so Gandhara art, an art form with a fusion of colors, flourished.

And now.

Two thousand years later.

The small city-state of Singapore has once again become an important trade and financial hub between the East and the West.

and so.

He brought his fusion paintings and chose the Singapore Biennale as the venue for his official debut in his artistic career.

It’s no wonder that the Biennale organizing committee was willing to give Cui Xiaoming a special invitation to participate in the exhibition.

It's not just his parents' connections that are being strengthened.

This painting was placed in front of him, hitting the right spot, but it was done in a very wonderful way. Old Yang even wanted to give this guy an award or something.

(End of this chapter)