Almighty painter

Chapter 605 New Style

"Can we do this?" Gu Weijing was a little surprised.

“Of course, if we want to make it happen, we need to communicate with both parties in advance to a certain extent. I think at least the copyright holder of the musical Cats and Jane Arnold’s illustration studio will definitely not have any reason to stop us. Singapore is originally planned to be the first stop in Asia for the musical’s world tour. If your related paintings can shine at the Lion City Biennale, then they will definitely be happy to see it happen.”

"I am glad to see it happen..."

Mr. Sloth paused and repeated, "... a more accurate description. They would be very happy with it."

A very important indicator in market research is the similarity of target customers.

Birds of a feather flock together.

For example, consumers of canned cat food are usually also consumers of cat deworming drops, and their customer groups are often the same group.

The target customers of these two products are very similar.

So supermarkets will put them in the same shelf section.

But there is not much correlation between consumers of synthetic motor oil and consumers of baby powder, from a statistical perspective.

So advertising baby powder in an auto repair shop usually isn't going to have a particularly noticeable effect.

Miss Elena knew it very well.

"Oil Painting" has done similar statistics.

The target group that would buy tickets to see a musical versus the target group that would buy tickets to see an art biennale.

The customer profiles of the two are highly overlapping.

Their main consumers are typical urban middle-class people who have a certain amount of spare money and time.

"Elegant enough", "stylish", "suitable for checking in and posting on photo walls or Moments", "a high-end and fresh dating place without being tacky", "not greasy"... These characteristic labels are like candlelight floating in the summer fields, attracting literary and artistic young people like moths chasing the light.

According to Maslow's needs theory.

When a person's basic physiological needs and safety needs are met.

They begin to look for a sense of belonging.

They need to be loved and loved.

The need to be respected, the need for cognition and aesthetics, and even the need to constantly pursue oneself until the value realization at the "superego" level is achieved.

Art exhibitions and theaters are places where a person can find a sense of belonging in a similar group and satisfy their cognitive and aesthetic needs.

These two industries have been inextricably linked since the moment they were born.

During the Enlightenment, the guests of the Paris Theater and the Paris Painting Salon were aristocrats from all over Europe.

And now.

When the operating company behind the musical is judging whether a city is suitable for holding a tour, whether there is a suitable landing soil, and whether the project will be a flop or lose money.

Often, a very important industry gold standard must be followed - whether the per capita GDP of the place exceeds the $10,000 mark.

Using GDP to evaluate whether a place has sufficient artistic soil is bound to be too utilitarian and have an unconcealable smell of money.

In almost all Broadway musicals, directors are trying to convey the pursuit of individuality and equality, the pursuit of freedom, the pursuit of love, and the promotion of the concept and values ​​of regarding money as dirt.

A down-and-out poet, a poor artist, a girl and a widow who dared to find themselves.

Destitute children.

They occupy almost half of the most sought-after regular roles in stage plays.

Even in a musical like Cats, the director deliberately placed the scene where the cats hold a discussion meeting in a garbage dump.

At the end.

The key factor that determines whether these stage plays can be successfully performed is whether the audience in a place is rich enough.

Everyone was wearing AJ, Coconuts, and Brooks Brothers, holding iPhones, eating scallops on a seaside bench restaurant, and finally walking into the theater with a Starbucks coffee to watch a story about a group of poor people in a garbage dump.

This kind of thing is just like the anonymous painter Banksy who has been trying to promote the idea of ​​opposing capital control of the art market, and insisting on being against materialism and consumerism.

As a result, he was crazily sought after by art capital and made a fortune in business. Even the waste paper torn by the shredder was sold for millions of pounds, making him the most commercially successful painter in the past decade.

It is inevitable that it will contain a strong sense of irony.

No wonder Anna felt so alienated and unreal most of the time.

This world is full of paradoxes and filled with a sense of illusion that can overwhelm people.

But this profit and loss standard is the one that the accountants and actuaries of the commercial promotion company behind the musical come up with as they clatter on the keyboards and use abacus in their minds, ultimately coming up with the final answer through a large amount of data.

The gallery industry could also adopt almost identical standards.

Even at Singapore's two landmark buildings, the Victoria Theatre and the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, discounted season tickets are priced the same as tickets to the Biennale, at around S$30 (US$25).

If Detective Cats' work can stand out at the Lion City Biennale, it will be a particularly valuable display opportunity for Jane Arnold Studio and even the entire Cats musical project.

In order to achieve better advertising effect.

They will even use the resources at hand to invite critics to write reviews for Detective Cats and cheer for it.

The painting market and the musical market, the serious painting industry and the drama industry, which one is richer?
It's hard to come to a conclusion.

Broadly speaking, musicals are also part of the visual arts.

Miss Anna's department includes a special drama department and two drama editors.

But their styles tend to be inclined towards the study of avant-garde and experimental drama.

In the mass media fields such as commercial musicals, perhaps the news reviews of media news giants such as The New York Times and the BBC will receive more attention than "Oil Painting".

Global art trade may be worth more than the total box office revenue of theater performances worldwide each year.

But for a super musical like "Cats" with an advertising volume of over 100 million US dollars, the publicity and promotion resources it has at its disposal are a complete blow to the independent painters participating in the Biennale.

"It's a great idea, isn't it? For both of us."

Miss Elena crossed her fingers elegantly and rested her hair on the chair behind her.

The basic furnishings in the visual arts manager's office have remained the same for many years.

Velvet curtains.

A Turkish rug that makes no sound when you step on it with your thick high heels.

and a massive walnut bookshelf.

Some of the furniture dates back to the time when Elena's family bought the building and her great-grandfather's grandfather founded the magazine.

It has been around longer than any one manager of the visual arts section has existed. The office has changed hands again and again.

But these pieces of furniture have been passed down from generation to generation.

When Anna returned to the magazine, she turned down Lord Browne's well-intentioned offer to help her modernize the offices.

The only personal change she had made in the furnishings was to have the Henry II low tables removed and a cabinet piano replaced.

The top-floor office was much larger than her previous editorial office, large enough to accommodate a real mechanical piano rather than an electric one.

But it is not large enough to accommodate the 6-foot or 9-foot full-size grand piano that weighs two tons in the manor.

She kept a cane by the table and her wheelchair was stored at the door for longer distances.

The Gothic seat beneath me had a huge backrest with carved wooden columns on both sides that looked like the towering bell tower of Cologne Cathedral. It was exquisite and gorgeous enough, but not comfortable enough.

The clerks and secretaries of the magazine secretly nicknamed it the "Iron Throne" in "Game of Thrones", which is the sword-forged throne in King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms.

On the design language of art history.

This furniture design style, which originated in the 14th century and imitated the exterior of buildings, gave it a "straightness and uprightness like a flame leaping into the sky", but it was often suitable for majestic old men like Sir Brown.

Or the mature and steady figure like the Metropolitan Art Consultant Al-Khelaifi, who weighs 195 pounds and is "thick" enough to be suppressed by a fat gentleman.

But when such an exquisitely slender woman like Anna sits on it, it actually creates an unexpected sense of beauty.

It is as if a moon-white Ding kiln teacup is placed on the branches supported by an ancient pine tree.

The thickness supports the enchantment.

In the odd visual balance, the sense of power of the superior permeates.

“As for the Singapore Biennale, I will try to make sure they can’t refuse the arrival of our works.”

She wasn't saying this as Anna, but her tone was still full of confidence.

In theory.

Whether the Singapore Biennale is willing to allow a commercial IP like "cats" to land at their main exhibition venue still requires a certain degree of negotiation.

Whether something like this can happen depends on the curator's intention.

Whether Director Tonks's side was demanding or simple.

She was sure that she would be able to deal with the other party in the end.

"Cats" is adapted from a children's poem.

Children's poems that have been popular around the world for a long time usually do not express strong political issues or have overly radical and sharp ideas.

Even if there is, it is a very universal value.

That being the case.

There won't be much resistance from the curator's side, and the rest will be commercial matters.

Today's art festivals are becoming more and more like commercial events.

It has developed very maturely in all aspects.

The serious painting unit is still a little deserted, but the film unit was the main battlefield for various film studios and commercial publicity companies half a century ago.

Why are those film companies willing to let their films be released in places like Venice, Cannes or the Berlin Art Festival?
It's not because of commercial interests.

Winning a big award in a place like this could potentially add tens of millions of dollars to the global box office.

She believes in both Tonks, the European curator, and the commercial promotion company behind Cats, a super musical that toured in New York for 16 years.

Both sides should be familiar with similar cooperation models.

All she needed to do was to build a suitable bridge between the two sides for Detective Cat.

This is also the time for them to show their self-worth in front of Jane Arnold.

“If that’s not possible, then it wouldn’t be a big problem to create a work that is not nominally inspired by the commercial musical Cats, but to create the exhibition painting based on the original text of Eliot’s 1953 poem Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, just like Anderson Weber did, and play a little word game. What do you think?”

This is something Anna has been thinking about for a long time.

This is the best creative advice they can think of based on the current situation they are facing.

The preparation time is too short.

The exhibition is about to open. Detective Cat Ms. also started out as an illustrator and has never been exposed to the serious art field.

At this time.

Instead of helping the other party research some particularly complex "high-concept" creations and trying to play a complicated mind game with the judges and the audience of the exhibition.

It is better to honestly play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses.

Make full use of the advantages of technical skills and treat the exhibition paintings in the same way as the previous book illustrations.

"Cats" also does not deviate from the theme of this Biennale, "Human Hustle". Anderson Weber's purpose in adapting this musical, including the ending lines of the last scene of the musical, is to tell children and adult audiences.

People can see the inner thoughts of different people in the world and the various forms of all living beings through "cats".

It's more than just staying on topic.

It's a perfect fit.

The premise is that the painter has enough confidence to express all the subtle emotions of the character while making the cat come alive.

To be handled well enough.

By the way, they can also get the massive publicity and promotion resources of the musical's global tour for free.

“I don’t think there’s any problem.”

Gu Weijing nodded.

Mr. Sloth had thought about all the problems he could think of, and he felt that there was nothing extra to add.

"Okay, I'll continue to try to communicate and negotiate with the exhibition. You should also go through the contract in the mailbox again to see if there are any omissions. Finally, let's read Old Possum's Practical Bible together at this time every evening. You can find video resources for the musical Cats on streaming media. Of course, if you have time, Jane Arnold is also very welcome to invite you to the rehearsal of Cats, but I think that since you didn't go to New Zealand at the beginning, you should concentrate on preparing for the exhibition now, and you may not have time to fly to London. Is it necessary?"

"No, I'll just watch the video."

Gu Weijing nodded.

"Oh, yes, there is one last thing. This is the request made by Cats after they learned that you participated in the artistic image design of this cartoon -"

"I hope the work this time will be realistic, preferably not knife-painted. They said it very politely, but I guess knife-painted works will encounter problems when selling mask dolls and producing hand-made peripherals."

(End of this chapter)