Almighty painter

Chapter 721: The Third Exhibition Painting (Part )
"The paintings of detective cats are solid and not easily broken." - AE, publisher of Oil Painting -
"A flawless work of art is an absolute state that remains in people's imagination. It should have the flicker of light and the quality of iron at the same time... Detective Cat's knife paintings... in my mind, are very close to this requirement..."

The woman in the wheelchair slowly rotated around this special CDX booth.

From her position, she could observe the lights reflected from all around Xishan, which changed with the angle.

The flowing light makes its protruding surface seem as if it is solidifying and burning.

The dark lines carved by the sculptor are bones or tendons in the flames.

The essence of flame is ionized matter at high temperature.

It is boneless and tendonless.

It naturally won't solidify.

Because it has no bones or tendons, the flame is strange enough but not strong enough.

Because flames do not solidify, so although they are bright, they are not eternal.

Only the power of art can solidify them.

When Miss Elena saw the tin mountain in front of her, she thought of Detective Cat's paintings, her knife paintings for "The Blazing World", and her "Empress".

The knife painting of Detective Cat has a similar temperament to it.

Her works are more exquisite, more gorgeous, more elegant, more complex and more brilliant than this Xishan Mountain.

The feeling of eternity and solidity is similar.

"…She uses a knife as a pen, not only painting, but also sculpting. Detective Cat uses colors and pigments to pile up a metallic mountain-like temperament on the soft linen canvas…Aesthetic concepts are solidified at her fingertips, shaping solid forms from illusory concepts, just like coldness forces out substantial ice crystals from the misty air…"

Miss Elena wrote in her heart.

"——Her handling of artistic concepts is not perfect yet. The emotions and souls she has endowed the painting with have not yet filled the painting 100%, 200%, or 10,000%, until it has squeezed itself into a "solid, substantial" crystal in the limited space. But her brushstrokes are already almost flawless... A needle, a drop of rain, a wisp of wind, can't splash in - I have never concealed my admiration and love for Detective Cat's outstanding techniques."

“When the Egyptian pharaoh saw the “ideal palace” that contained the essence of Egyptian art in the postman’s mind, he probably would not only not want to use it as his own mausoleum, but would also order the builders to be beheaded. However, any painter engaged in knife painting can feel the transparency and timelessness of the ice scene in the brushstrokes of Detective Cat.”

"However."

"Her watercolor skills have not yet reached the level of this kind of divine painting. It is very good and perfect, but not yet extraordinary."

Anna leaned slightly sideways in the wheelchair.

such.

From this angle, she could see some of the Detective Cats booths in the distance.

CDX Gallery's special booth occupied the best position in the central exhibition area on the second floor, in the center of all the booths.

The surrounding booths surround the shining metal sculpture in the center, just like Singapore's urban area surrounds its Bukit Timah Hill, or the planets and celestial bodies in the solar system surround the burning sun in the center.

The three core golden elements of real estate investment.

The first is the location.

The second is the location.

The third is location!

The same is true for booths at art exhibitions.

Yovan Phin is the top prize-winning artist promoted by the Grand Gallery at the Biennale. If he places his paintings in the Esplanade, it would be like buying a house in Singapore's most expensive and prime wealthy villa area of ​​Bukit Timah Hill, where the price can easily reach tens of millions of dollars. He would then become neighbors with wealthy businessmen and be illuminated by the sun on the top of the mountain at all times.

So detective cat.

She can only be considered a young white-collar worker living in public housing, or settling down on an asteroid between the Earth and Mars.

Her booth was almost 30 meters away from Anna.

Each of Detective Cat's watercolor paintings is only the size of an A4 paper. When viewed from such a distance, they appear to be no more than the size of a playing card.

however.

She could still clearly see the subtlest brushstrokes, the layers of color, and the dots of dew on the long white whiskers of the Chief Cat.

Maybe... there's no need to watch it.

She was already very familiar with this kind of brushstrokes.

Perhaps she had seen such brushstrokes in her previous life, perhaps a century and a half ago, or a hundred and fifty years ago, at a winter party hosted by Charlotte Thunberg of the Hohenzollern dynasty.

There was once a court painter with a white beard and a medal, holding a watercolor painting board, and bowed from a distance to Miss Elena who was wearing a whalebone skirt.

"Detective Cat's brushstrokes still retain her usual high standards, neat and precise. She can accurately distribute the color elements in her brush with the patience of an experienced housewife treating the kitchen... As early as the first time I saw Detective Cat's sketches, I had a sense of familiarity... It was like smelling an extremely rare flower, seeing the phantom of the past in the amber-like scent. But I had been slow to remember the name of this flower... Until today, at the Esplanade in Singapore, I finally realized what it was-"

"Adolf von Menzel."

Anna whispered the name.

If Yovan Phin's taming of colors on canvas makes her see a little bit of Matisse's shadow.

Well Detective Cat works.

Suddenly, she seemed to see Menzel.

Not just a shadow.

Compared to her knife paintings, the brushstrokes in these works seem to be a little bit short of the incredible, extraordinary and flawless state.

It has "impurities".

The rise, development, turning points and endings of certain lines with a strong personal temperament, the over-processing of edge lines to make them appear slightly rich, the blurred changes between distant and near views, the coexistence of large structures and small shapes... these are impurities.

As far as this painting is concerned, impurities are not mistakes, but the accumulation of personal habits, personal aesthetics and personal pen-holding preferences.

They exist in the picture.

Therefore, the picture is no longer solidified, no longer hard and indestructible, no longer eternal metal, but also not illusory smoke, but it has formed something between solid and liquid - the river of soul flowing with brushstrokes, Menzel's river of soul.

If it weren't for children's fairy tales, it would be a painting subject that Mr. Mencaier, despite his wide range of interests, had never touched upon in his life.

If it weren’t for the musical project “Cats”, it would have been Miss Irina who personally acted as the middleman and found the painting theme for Detective Cat.

Then.

Anna almost felt that someone had secretly taken two paintings from the watercolor museum on Berlin's Museum Island, which houses most of Menzel's works throughout his life, and handed them over to the organizing committee of the Lion City Biennale.

It's so similar.

“Under normal circumstances, I don’t like to see modern artists imitating too much the brushwork of their predecessors… Imitation is necessary, but it is never the whole of art. Artists of every era have their own missions and their own unique insights into the times. Forcibly imitating predecessors is like seeing a man walking on the street wearing high heels, stockings, and a wig with a shawl on his shoulders. It was the mainstream court attire in Europe hundreds of years ago.”

"Each generation of painters should try to find the power of their own era in their brushstrokes. There is only one exception - unless her painting is really good. Good ones don't seem to be imitations. Good ones have absorbed all the souls of the previous generations of painters. Good ones are like Menzel, the most important painter in German history, who has come back from the dead and reincarnated."

"Curator Tonks wants to meet with you. The time you set is in twenty minutes. There will also be a dinner in the evening."

Anna was deep in thought in her wheelchair.

Butler Adrar glanced at the watch on his wrist, walked forward and whispered in the young lady's ear.

"Well, come on, let's go upstairs."

The woman nodded.

The two of them left the central exhibition area and walked towards the employee elevator on the side.

before leaving.

Miss Elena stopped again and turned her head to look back at the Detective Cat's booth.

"Have you ever seen someone draw a group of children's cartoons with the same flourish as Prince Albrecht's garden? Have you ever seen someone draw a cat taking a nap on a lawn that looks like Frederick the Great at a feast? Come and see Detective Cat's Cats."

"It is shining with the light of time."

“For this reason, even though this is just a simple cartoon watercolor painting, even though the weight of the painting is just a group of lively cats, rather than some grand social issues, I still think it will be the work that deserves the gold medal of this Biennale.”

"An adult tabby cat weighs about 8 to 12 pounds. Twelve pounds of real, warm brushstrokes are heavier than a mountain of nothingness," Anna said in her heart.

The elevator stopped in front of the second floor of Singapore's Esplanade.

There was a ding.
-
Ding!
The elevator stopped in front of the twelfth floor of Mi Rocher Hotel Singapore.

A 29-pound tabby cat wriggled out of the elevator.

Behind him was a young man dragging a huge suitcase.

Singapore's major autumn events this year are held one after another, with thousands of international tourists pouring in. While the local hotel industry is making a fortune, accommodation is also a little tight.

Unless it is a student exhibition or a peripheral exhibition.

Otherwise, for art festivals or symphony orchestra tours, especially important cultural projects at the city or national level (for Singapore, the two are the same thing), the organizing committee is unlikely to arrange for guests to stay in Airbnb or budget hotels.

shameful.

But unless it is an exhibition hosted by a Middle Eastern country with super luxury.

It is not to the point where every guest has a hotel suite, as that would be too costly.

Some large-scale biennials do not make money themselves, and rely mainly on government grants and the stimulation of the surrounding tourism economy to recover their costs.

The approval process for various budgets is quite strict.

The Singapore Biennale is neither the poorest one nor the richest one.

The organizing committee booked the grand ballroom with crystal chandeliers on the top floor of the Raffles Hotel where Anna was staying as the venue for tonight's artist dinner. They also booked some of the Raffles Hotel's guest rooms, but those were for the judges of the organizing committee, not for the participating painters.

Painters can live here too.

Pay for it yourself.

Super galleries generally never save money on the food, clothing, housing and transportation of their contracted painters.

The shelf cannot fall down.

It has to behave like a top gallery.

When opening a gallery at this level, it is customary not to do the "down and out Van Gogh" style.

What we want is wealth and honor.

Your artists usually don't look like well-dressed upper-class masters, and they look so poor that they have to sleep on the streets. How can you have the nerve to "fool" customers by saying that one of their paintings can be sold for 20 US dollars and will definitely appreciate in value after they are bought?

What about your luxury endorsement contract?
The financial situation of the Ma Shi Gallery has not been healthy in recent years.

A while ago.

Reporters have reported that gallery owner Marc Jacobs III is selling his private jet and yacht, and it seems that his cash flow is very tight.

But even so.

The Ma Shi Gallery still reserves a well-known spa in the mountains of the Belgian Ardennes Forest, and uses half of its suites every winter as accommodation for its artists' annual "spiritual healing" journey.

It is said that the other half of the suite is reserved by the Belgian men's national football team all year round and is used for the players' winter relaxation training.

When the gallery's painters go on vacation every year, if they are lucky, they can often bring back a few autographs from basketball stars.

If you are lucky, you can even play two balls together at sunset.

of course.

During the heyday of the Ma Shi Gallery.

The same can be said the other way around.

When the players go for relaxation training every year, if they are lucky, they can often get a few signatures from famous artists. If they are particularly lucky, they can even get one or two sketches drawn on napkins or notes.

Nowadays, galleries are under so much financial pressure that this benefit has not been reduced.

Arthur Marshall III was about to sell his private jet, as he was so poor that he could only travel in first class. However, he used the money he saved from aviation fuel to send bald old men like Gu Tongxiang to hot springs and get SPA treatments.

Is it because Old Man Gu looks particularly cute with his bald face?

surely not.

This is because this is one of the core components of the gallery's "face project". The annual operating expenses of Maison's headquarters in one continent amount to tens of millions of euros, and a large part of it is spent on these things.

Frugality is an eternal virtue.

But in the consumerist market, frugality is not necessarily a "virtue".

Some Hollywood stars just want to show off their wealth. In some rap cultures, singers just want to wear big gold rings, big gold chains, and big gold watches, wave Franklin, and shout "I have money, girls, and brothers! I am the king of the West Coast."

Only in this way will others respect you.

It is a necessary expense for building an IP image.

It is both a welfare and an advertisement.

CDX Gallery booked four rooms in the Raffles Hotel for its four participating artists, firstly to highlight its brand image, and secondly, for this kind of exhibition, staying close to the judges is beneficial after all.

The organizing committee officially booked two hotels for the artists participating in the main exhibition area.

The specially invited painters stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in the Marina District, while ordinary painters shortlisted for the main exhibition area, such as Gu Weijing, were booked at the slightly farther Mi Rochor Hotel.

The Mi Rochor Hotel is a 4-star hotel that focuses on literary, petty bourgeoisie and urban style.

The conditions are not bad.

But compared with the organizing committee's judges and specially invited artists, they are still treated three differently.

Classes are distinct.

"Come inside and don't run around."

Gu Weijing opened the door, inserted the room card into the wall, turned on the power, and then opened the window a little.

The windows are push-down.

He didn't dare to open the door too wide, for fear that Awang would run around and jump around and fall while walking in the house.

This is the twelfth floor.

However, given Awang's size, it would not be easy to avoid getting stuck even if the window was opened as wide as possible.

After everything is settled.

The first thing Gu Weijing did was to open his suitcase.

He brought an extra-large suitcase, 34 inches, which was at the maximum size limit for checked luggage as stipulated on the official website of Singapore Airlines.

It took a lot of effort for Lao Yang to successfully stuff the box into the trunk of his M3 sedan.

The box itself is very light.

Apart from the clothes that Gu Weijing stuffed in every corner of the box, most of the space was occupied by a large cardboard box tied with tape, which was as sturdy and not easy to collapse as a rice dumpling.

Over a week ago.

Gu Weijing completed the painting "Human Noise" in the Xihe Guild Hall.

The painting time is limited, so in order to be able to quickly apply the shading and coloring every night, and also to allow the oil paint to solidify to the best gloss effect when I show it to Brother Hao a few hours after finishing the painting.

When he was mixing colors for his paintings, he deliberately chose turpentine containing alkyd resin.

Alkyd resin is a substance that can be gradually oxidized in the air to form a film, which can greatly shorten the drying time of oil-based paints.

(End of this chapter)